Grayscale's GBTC shed $66 million on Tuesday, dragging U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs to roughly $47 million in net outflows while XRP funds pulled in the only meaningful inflow in the market. Bitcoin's price held near $79,000, about 37% below its October 2025 record, as Wintermute flagged the cycle's drawdown as shallower than the 2018 and 2022 bear markets.
Grayscale's GBTC shed $66 million in redemptions on Tuesday. The drawdown dragged U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs to roughly $47 million in net outflows, even as BlackRock's IBIT, Bitwise's BITB, Ark and 21Shares' ARKB, and Morgan Stanley's MSBT added roughly $41 million between them.
XRP funds bucked the trend, however. The five products pulled in nearly $2 million — the only meaningful inflow anywhere in the U.S. crypto ETF market that day — lifting their cumulative total to $1.69 billion.
GBTC's fee gap drives the split
Bitcoin ETF net assets closed at $99.52 billion on Tuesday. That's back under the $100 billion line the funds crossed on Sept. 3. GBTC charges a 1.50% fee against IBIT's 0.25%, a gap that has driven the split all year.
Ether funds moved the same way. Grayscale's two products shed a combined $34 million while Fidelity's FETH took in $10 million, leaving the ether complex down about $24 million. Hyperliquid ETFs lost $13 million and solana funds lost under $1 million.
Bitcoin holds near $79,000 after a volatile week
Bitcoin dipped to $77,600 on Monday after being rejected above $80,000, then rebounded to near $79,000. Its market cap rose to $1.590 trillion, with dominance over the rest of the crypto market climbing to 58.8%.
The token traded at $79,200 on Sept. 9. That left it about 37% below its October 2025 record near $125,653.
Ripple's XRP slipped below its $1.40 support level on Tuesday, but buyers pushed it back above $1.44, a gain of 3.5%.
Wintermute says cycle bottoms are getting shallower
Market maker Wintermute said bitcoin's drawdown this cycle reached about 50%, compared with 77% in 2022 and 83% in 2018. It attributed the shallower bottoms partly to ETFs and institutional investors entering earlier during market weakness, though that explanation cannot be confirmed through drawdown data alone.
Wintermute identified $82,000 as the level bitcoin needs to reclaim and $72,000 as the level that would undercut its shallower-bottom view.
Sources: CoinDesk, CryptoPotato, crypto.news
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