Bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds bled a combined $1.6 billion in the last full week of May 2024. The outflows hit during a holiday-shortened trading period, but they still stand as the biggest weekly withdrawal on record for the two flagship crypto ETFs. Meanwhile, a pair of newer funds — one tied to XRP and another to HYPE — quietly pulled in more than $40 million over the same five days, suggesting money is rotating rather than fleeing the sector entirely.
$1.6 billion heads for the exits
The numbers come from weekly flow data compiled by the funds' issuers. Both the spot Bitcoin ETF and the spot ether ETF saw material redemptions each day except the Tuesday after the U.S. Memorial Day holiday, when volumes were thin. The combined tally of $1.6 billion erased roughly three weeks' worth of prior inflows for the two products combined. No single catalyst was named by any of the fund managers, but the move aligns with a broader pullback in risk assets during the period.
XRP and HYPE go the other way
While the big two ETFs bled, the XRP ETF and the HYPE ETF each added net new money. Weekly inflows for that pair totaled just over $40 million, with XRP grabbing slightly more than HYPE. It's a modest sum next to the billion-dollar outflow, but it breaks a three-week streak of flat-to-negative flows for the altcoin funds. The shift suggests some institutional allocators are trimming positions in the largest digital assets and rotating into smaller names — a pattern that has played out before in traditional ETF markets.
Holiday-shortened and thin
The final week of May 2024 had only four full trading days, with U.S. markets closed on Monday for Memorial Day. That compressed the trading window and likely exaggerated the pace of outflows relative to a normal five-day stretch. Still, even on a per-day basis, the daily exit rate was about $400 million — well above the recent average of roughly $150 million a day. The shortened week doesn't explain away the magnitude; it mostly means the redemptions hit harder in fewer sessions.
All four ETFs trade on U.S. exchanges, and their issuers will release updated daily flow data when markets open on Tuesday. Investors will be watching to see whether the outflows accelerate or stabilize. The XRP and HYPE funds, which started trading earlier this year, haven't yet faced a test of sustained stress. This week's data might offer the first real clue about whether investors see them as a safe haven or just a small hedge.
