US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $996M in weekly net inflows, the most since early January, powered by a $663.9M Friday surge as geopolitical de-escalation triggered a risk-on wave. Total ETF AUM crossed $101B for the first time. BlackRock IBIT alone added $269.3M Thursday — its best day in a month. The flows pushed YTD net inflows back within $80M of positive territory after months of outflows.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $996M in weekly net inflows, the most since early January, powered by a $663.9M Friday surge as geopolitical de-escalation triggered a risk-on wave. Total ETF AUM crossed $101B for the first time. BlackRock IBIT alone added $269.3M Thursday — its best day in a month. The flows pushed YTD net inflows back within $80M of positive territory after months of outflows.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded nearly $1 billion in net inflows over the week ending April 18, marking their strongest weekly performance since early January when inflows reached approximately $1.4 billion.
Friday alone saw $663.9 million in inflows — the largest single day of the week — following a geopolitical catalyst: Iran's foreign minister announced the Strait of Hormuz would remain open during the ongoing ceasefire, sending oil prices plunging 10% and risk assets surging.
The weekly flow breakdown:
This is the third straight week of meaningful inflows, building on:
The trend is accelerating. Inflows have grown 27% week-over-week.
BlackRock's IBIT remains the dominant force with $1.5B in YTD net inflows and $64.3B in cumulative net inflows since launch. Morgan Stanley's MSBT also continued its streak with $103M cumulative inflows, surpassing WisdomTree despite launching just two weeks ago.
The $101B AUM milestone matters because it represents a new high-water mark for spot Bitcoin ETF assets. Despite Bitcoin being roughly 40% below its October 2025 all-time high of $126,000, ETF assets continue to grow — meaning inflows are outpacing price declines.
The YTD figure being just $80M from positive territory is significant. If the trend continues, next week could mark the first time in 2026 that cumulative spot BTC ETF inflows are net positive year-to-date. That would be a powerful signal for institutional Bitcoin demand.
Morgan Stanley digital asset head Amy Oldenburg told Bloomberg this week that MSBT was the bank's best-performing ETF launch ever, adding: "This is just the first of a long roadmap of new products."
Ondo Finance launched Ondo Intelligent Portfolios, a new onchain product category delivering portfolios built on strategies developed by BlackRock for Ondo as single transferable tokens. Three tokens went live today — High Income, Diversified Growth, High Growth — with smart-contract-level rebalancing, available to eligible investors outside the US.
US spot bitcoin ETFs have swung to net inflows of roughly $320M for 2026 (Bloomberg tally; ~$349M per Askthetape) — the first positive year-to-date print since April — after investors added about $4.6B since Aug 19, erasing a $5.69B deficit accumulated by July 13. BlackRock's IBIT captured ~$1.02B over four sessions as Bitcoin rallied ~35% from ~$64,100 to an eight-month high of $87,265.
On Monday, Sept 21, the European Central Bank switched on Pontes, a platform linking distributed-ledger markets to the Eurosystem's TARGET Services so eligible banks and market infra providers can settle tokenized bonds and funds in central-bank money. Christine Lagarde announced the go-live at Friday's Eurogroup, calling it 'a digital euro made available for banks.' It lands three days after the SEC's Innovation Exemption opened onchain trading of tokenized US stocks — the institutional tokenization race is now transatlantic.