BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is hitting a rough patch — in fact, its roughest ever. After a bruising November, the world’s largest Bitcoin ETF is now suffering through its longest withdrawal streak since launching in January 2024, signaling a sharp shift in investor sentiment.
The fund has seen more than $2.7 billion pulled out in the five weeks leading up to Nov. 28, according to Bloomberg. The bleeding didn’t stop there: on Dec. 4 alone, another $113 million exited the ETF. What was once seen as the bridge connecting Wall Street’s institutional capital to the crypto world is rapidly losing momentum.
A Deeper Shift Behind Bitcoin’s Slide
Bitcoin’s slump isn’t simply a price correction — it reflects a broader cooling across the entire crypto landscape. As the market turns bearish and retail excitement fades, even institutions, long touted as crypto’s stabilizing backbone, appear to be stepping away.
The contrast with IBIT’s early months is striking. The ETF drew massive inflows earlier this year, helping push Bitcoin to fresh all-time highs. Now, the mood around trading desks is far gloomier. Despite IBIT still holding more than $71 billion in assets, investor behavior tells another story.
FactSet data shows that investors withdrew $2.2 billion from the ETF just before Thanksgiving — nearly eight times October’s losses and the worst monthly drop in the ETF’s brief life. Even with Bitcoin stabilizing recently, outflows haven’t slowed, hinting at a decisive turn toward risk-off positioning.
Bitcoin itself isn’t offering much comfort either. Trading around $88,900, it’s down 8.5% for the year, completely out of sync with the S&P 500’s 16% rally in 2025. This marks the first time since 2014 that U.S. equities are soaring while Bitcoin sinks.
Politics, Meme Coins, and a Market in Retreat
The wider crypto market has shed over $1 trillion since a sharp liquidation wave hit in early October. Retail traders, who powered crypto’s explosive run last year, have been unable to stomach the downturn — and institutions appear to be following suit.
Meanwhile, the much-hyped “Trump boom” for digital assets hasn’t shown up. Yes, Bitcoin briefly shot past $126,000 earlier this year, but the crash that followed wiped out most of the optimism surrounding regulatory relief or institutional expansion.
SkyBridge founder Anthony Scaramucci added fuel to the debate, criticizing former President Trump’s launch of two meme coins. On his podcast “The Rest Is Politics,” Scaramucci argued that the tokens’ collapse — after Trump allegedly took hundreds of millions in profit — created distrust rather than excitement in the industry.
A Market Out of Sync
Perhaps most notable is how Bitcoin has decoupled from other risk assets. While AI plays surge and gold nears all-time highs, Bitcoin is charting its own downward path. The divergence raises an uncomfortable question: is IBIT’s outflow streak merely a temporary shakeout, or a warning sign of a deeper, more painful year ahead?
For now, one thing is clear — investor confidence in Bitcoin’s biggest ETF is wavering, and the crypto market is feeling the pressure.
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