U.S. spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) experienced substantial net outflows on Tuesday, December 24th, as year-end portfolio adjustments and thin holiday liquidity influenced investor behavior. According to data from SoSoValue, spot Bitcoin ETFs reported $188.6 million in net outflows, marking the fourth consecutive day of negative flows. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) led the outflows with $157.3 million, followed by outflows from Fidelity's FBTC, Grayscale's GBTC, and Bitwise's BITB.
On a weekly basis, spot Bitcoin ETFs logged $497.1 million in net outflows last week, reversing the $286.6 million in inflows recorded the prior week. Meanwhile, spot Ethereum ETFs reported $95.5 million in net outflows on Tuesday, a sharp reversal from the $84.6 million in inflows seen a day earlier. Grayscale's Ethereum Trust (ETHE) was the primary contributor, with $50.9 million exiting the fund.
Market analysts attribute the moves to seasonal factors rather than a fundamental shift in sentiment. Vincent Liu, CIO of Kronos Research, stated the outflows reflect "year-end mechanics" driven by thin liquidity, portfolio rebalancing, and profit-taking. Nick Ruck of LVRG Research echoed this, citing seasonal profit-taking, tax-loss harvesting, and holiday liquidity as investors "de-risk ahead of Christmas."
Rick Maeda of Presto Research advised against over-interpreting the data, noting flows have been choppy and some year-end de-risking is normal, especially after a volatile Q4. He drew a parallel to Christmas 2024, when spot Bitcoin ETFs saw over $1.5 billion in outflows in the four days leading up to the holiday, suggesting the current drawdown is "relatively modest" in comparison.
Amid the ETF outflows, Bitcoin's price declined 0.7% to $86,931, while Ether slid 1.18% to $2,931. In contrast, spot XRP ETFs saw $8.2 million in inflows, and the spot SOL ETF logged $4.2 million in inflows.
The news coincides with a broader report from Cryptorank revealing that 83% of tokens launched on centralized exchanges (CEXs) in 2025 are trading below their initial listing price, underscoring a challenging year for new crypto assets. Exchanges like Gate.io and MEXC had the highest percentages of tokens trading above their launch price, at 18% and 15.59% respectively, while Binance ranked lowest with just 6.06%.
This poor performance for new tokens is set against a backdrop of a difficult year for Bitcoin, which is down almost 8% year-to-date, with analysts suggesting upward momentum may not return until at least Q1 2026.
