Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs break $1B in their best week since April and BlackRock brought in 80% of the cash

US spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs collected over $1 billion in combined inflows during the week ended August 7, marking their strongest performance in nearly four months and signaling renewed institutional appetite for regulated crypto exposure. The surge coincides with a major security breach in self-custody hardware, raising questions about whether institutional custody vehicles are winning ground as an alternative to private key management.

• Bitcoin ETFs attracted $853.54 million in the week ended August 7, their best weekly haul since April 17 when they drew $996 million
• BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust captured approximately $693 million of Bitcoin ETF inflows, representing roughly 81 percent of the week’s total
• Ethereum ETFs collected $244.94 million in the same week, extending a five-week streak of consecutive inflows and their strongest period since April

• $853.54M Bitcoin ETF inflows in week ended August 7 versus $824M four months prior
• $693M BlackRock’s IBIT share of weekly Bitcoin ETF inflows, 81 percent of total
• $80B Total net assets in US spot Bitcoin ETFs as of August 7 inflow week

The resurgence in flows to US-listed spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs reflects a marked reversal from the summer slowdown that has characterized crypto markets since mid-July.

During the week ended August 7, spot Bitcoin funds recorded inflows on all five trading days, beginning with $170.09 million on Monday and accelerating to $244.42 million on Wednesday before moderating slightly in the final two sessions.

The total of $853.54 million exceeded the approximately $824 million collected during the week of April 24 and marked the strongest week since mid-April, when institutional demand for regulated Bitcoin exposure temporarily peaked ahead of the market’s subsequent volatility.

The breadth of daily inflows across the week suggests sustained institutional interest rather than a single catalyst event. Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted the consistency of demand, highlighting that the recovery follows weeks of choppy trading activity and risk-off sentiment in global markets.

Inflows across multiple trading days typically indicate multiple institutional investors moving capital into the funds, rather than concentrated activity by a single large allocator.

BlackRock captures four-fifths of Bitcoin ETF cash as iShares Bitcoin Trust dominates

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust commanded the inflow landscape during the week, accounting for approximately $693 million of the $853.54 million total, according to data from SoSoValue.

This represents roughly 81 percent of all new cash entering US spot Bitcoin ETFs, underscoring the dominant position the world’s largest asset manager has maintained since the January 2024 launch of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum funds.

IBIT’s outsized share reflects both its first-mover advantage and its scale relative to competitors. The fund has accumulated $80 billion in net assets under management as of the inflow week, making it substantially larger than the combined holdings of the next-largest Bitcoin ETF competitors.

Since the entire category launched in January 2024, spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded more than $52 billion in cumulative net inflows, demonstrating the structural shift toward regulated vehicles that institutional investors have pursued over the past 18 months.

The concentration of flows in a single product raises questions about whether retail and smaller institutional investors face barriers to competing alternatives, or whether IBIT’s brand recognition and integration with BlackRock’s distribution infrastructure genuinely justify its market dominance.

Coldcard security breach puts self-custody model under institutional scrutiny

The timing of the week’s inflows coincided with the disclosure of a significant security flaw in Coldcard hardware wallets, a device marketed to investors seeking to hold Bitcoin and other digital assets outside the traditional financial system.

Beginning July 30, attackers exploited a vulnerability to drain approximately 1,816 BTC from over 5,200 addresses, with losses estimated between $116 million and $130 million depending on the valuation method and tracing methodology used by different security firms.

While no direct causal link has been established between the Coldcard breach and the week’s ETF inflows, the proximity of the events has sharpened institutional debate over the custody trade-offs inherent in the self-custody versus institutional custody spectrum.

Balchunas argued that the breach strengthens the case for institutional custody among investors whose primary investment thesis centers on long-term Bitcoin exposure rather than the asset’s use as a transaction mechanism or censorship-resistant payment rail.

The security infrastructure operated by major financial institutions, including qualified custodians and insurance coverage, presents a structural alternative to individually managed private keys, even when those keys are protected by hardware devices specifically engineered for offline storage.

Institutional investors have historically expressed concern about the reputational and fiduciary risks of recommending self-custody solutions to clients, particularly when a breach of that magnitude affects thousands of addresses.

The Coldcard incident, despite being a hardware vulnerability rather than a flaw in Bitcoin’s underlying protocol, may reinforce the institutional preference for custodial ETFs as a lower-friction, lower-liability entry point to Bitcoin exposure.

This dynamic could support sustained inflows into spot funds regardless of whether Coldcard-specific losses directly drove any portion of this week’s capital.

Ethereum ETFs sustain momentum with five consecutive weeks of inflows

Ethereum spot ETFs extended a powerful rebound by collecting $244.94 million during the week ended August 7, marking their strongest weekly inflow since April and marking the fifth consecutive week of positive flows.

The cumulative recovery over these five weeks has brought significant capital back into Ethereum products after a prolonged period of outflows that characterized much of the previous two months.

The Ethereum recovery appears distinct from Bitcoin’s recent surge in both timing and magnitude relative to fund size. Ethereum ETFs have recorded substantially smaller cumulative inflows since their January 2024 launch compared to Bitcoin peers, reflecting both lower institutional demand and greater price volatility in the underlying asset.

The five-week streak suggests that recent price stabilization and reduced macro uncertainty may be drawing allocators back into the space, even as Ethereum continues to underperform Bitcoin from a net inflow perspective.

The breadth of Ethereum’s recovery across multiple funds indicates that the inflows are not concentrated in a single dominant product the way Bitcoin flows have favored IBIT. This pattern could reflect greater competitive pressure in the Ethereum ETF space, where multiple providers including Grayscale have launched competing products since the initial January 2024 approvals, forcing more active marketing and distribution to compete for similar capital pools.

Institutional investors should monitor whether this week’s inflows represent a sustained shift in demand or a temporary bounce from oversold conditions, particularly given that both spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs have experienced significant volatility in recent weeks. The next critical datapoint will arrive in the following week’s flow reports, scheduled to release by mid-August, which will clarify whether the daily inflows documented this week extend into the subsequent trading period or reverse as macro conditions shift. Additionally, ongoing developments in the Coldcard investigation and potential industry responses to the security breach could shape institutional custody preferences over the coming months, creating structural tailwinds for ETF adoption if self-custody concerns persist among larger allocators.