‘Only 6.6% down’: Are Bitcoin ETFs under stress amid price crash?

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have been relatively resilient despite the crypto asset’s +50% price decline.

According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the overall BTC held by the ETFs dropped by only about 7%. He viewed the holders, mainly boomers, as ‘diamond hands.’

Before the October crash, the U.S spot BTC ETFs held a record high of 1.362 million BTC. This stash had since dropped to 1.272 million BTC by the 4th of February.  

Can ETFs withstand the pressure?

When zoomed out to the global holdings of BTC ETFs (covering offerings in the U.S, E.U., Asia, and others), the same picture emerged. 

Over the same period, global BTC ETF holdings dropped by only 72,400 BTC from October’s high of 1.50 million to 1.428 million BTC. That’s only a 4.8% drop in BTC holdings.  

Put differently, the market fears and outflows in the past few weeks have not led to a massive drop in BTC held by ETFs. 

However, the asset extended its price decline over the past 24 hours, tagging $60K for the first time since October 2024.

Although BTC price had moved up slightly to $65K at press time, there was still uncertainty about whether it had reached its final market bottom. 

That said, the latest dump saw BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) post its record daily trading volume of $10 billion and its second-worst price drop 13%. 

For Balchunas, this was ‘brutal,’ further raising questions about the ETF buyers’ ability to remain resilient if markets go lower. 

Is $60K the market bottom?

Meanwhile, Chris Burniske, a VC partner at Placeholder and former Ark Invest crypto lead, said the sub-$60K levels were of ‘interest’ but expected an extra downside. 

Chris nailed the October market top and the ensuing drawdown. He had projected that the market could bottom near $58K or $50K (levels that aligned with the 200-Day Simple Moving Average (SMA) and on-chain cost basis. 

For their part, Bitfinex analysts appeared hopeful that the market was not in a better position to form a bottom after the price dropped below the previous cycle peak of $69K. But they also echoed Burniske’s caution, 

Final Thoughts 

• BTC held by U.S spot ETFs has dropped by only 7% despite BTC’s +50% price decline since October 2025
• Despite the extended dip to $60K-$65K zone, analysts appeared cautiously optimistic for a potential BTC bottom.