Bitcoin ETF flows turn positive after $4.6 billion rebound

As per the latest business developments, Flows into US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have swung positive for the year as a recovery in the largest cryptocurrency revives investor demand.

The cohort has taken in around $320 million on a net basis in 2026, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Market participants have poured roughly $4.6 billion into the funds since Aug. 19, when the US Treasury stated it would gain buybacks of long-dated bonds, reversing outflows accumulated earlier in the year.

Bitcoin has rallied around 35% in that period to above $86,000, finally breaking out of a slump that had kept it mostly below $80,000 since February. The token was trading around $85,900 early Wednesday morning in New York.

Digital assets have additionally advanced back to $3 trillion in total market value for the first time since January, according to CoinGecko data.

The surge has been accompanied by a pickup in leverage. Open interest in perpetual futures across cryptocurrencies has advanced to around $160 billion, the highest since late October last year, according to Coinglass data.

The renewed ETF demand marks a shift from earlier in the year, when persistent redemptions weighed on the funds while Bitcoin was under pressure.

The average holder of US spot Bitcoin ETFs “is now comfortably back in unrealized earnings,” according to Chris Weston, head of research at the brokerage Pepperstone. He estimated the average cost of Bitcoin held by the funds at $82,000.

“Having endured a meaningful drawdown, I don’t necessarily see the move back above aggregate break-even as an obvious trigger to take earnings,” he wrote in a note.

Paul Howard, senior director at the trading firm Wincent, stated the surge has caught many by surprise, with attention largely on developments in artificial intelligence this year.

“The move increasingly looks sustainable, with ETF flows providing backing around the $80,000 to $85,000 range,” he stated. “The resilience of the move brings the widely discussed $100,000 year-end Bitcoin target increasingly into range.”