Bitcoin ETFs rebound, analyst sees institutional interest breaking September’s bearish trend

Spot Bitcoin ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, broke out of a two-week outflow streak with over $403.8 million in weekly inflows. Analysts expect the uptick in institutional interest this year to help Bitcoin defy the bearish September narrative.

According to SoSoValue, spot Bitcoin ETFs raked in $263.07 million on Sept. 13, the largest single-day inflow since July 22, with Fidelity and ARK Invest and 21Shares’ funds snagging over half of the day’s action.

• Fidelity’s FBTC continued its 5-day inflow streak, bringing in $102.1 million.
• ARK Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB, $99.3 million.
• Bitwise BITB, $43.1million.
• Franklin Templeton EZBC, $5.2 million.
• Grayscale’s GBTC turned positive for the first time since Jul. 19, raking in $6.7 million.
• VanEck’s HODL, $5.1 million.
• Valkyrie’s BRRR’s, $1.7 million marked its first inflow day after four days of no flows.
• BlackRock’s IBIT, Invesco’s BTCO, WisdomTree’s BTCW, and Grayscale’s Bitcoin mini trust saw zero flows.

Bitcoin ETFs broke out of the two-week outflow streak as Bitcoin (BTC) recovered back to $60,000 levels with an intraday high and low of $60,655 and $57,668, respectively.

At press time, the crypto asset was trading 11% higher than its weekly low of $53,860 on Sept. 8.

This time is different

Historically, September has been a negative month for Bitcoin. CoinGlass data shows an average monthly loss of 4.69% over the last 11 years.

But analyst Rajat Soni suggests that rising institutional interest, driven by the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs this cycle, could help turn things around.

Soni pointed out that BTC has been consolidating above the $50,000 mark over the past six months, noting that the last time the flagship crypto settled above this level was in 2021. However, back then, the market was mainly driven by retail investors who are often swayed by emotions, which translates to increased volatility.

This time around, Soni believes the presence of institutional investors could provide a more stable foundation, making it less likely for Bitcoin to drop below this critical level. A sentiment that was also echoed by several industry experts crypto.news interviewed earlier this month. 

“This time is different. Institutional investors are here, and they’re ready to buy everything retail investors want to sell,” Soni wrote.

That being said, Soni cautioned against selling, adding that investors may find themselves paying a much higher price to buy back later, as institutions are ready to scoop up any coins that hit the market.

Institutional interest appears to have spilled over into Bitcoin mining stocks as well. As observed by analysts at H.C. Wainwright, the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, along with increasing demand for AI-driven power infrastructure, has fueled investor interest in Bitcoin mining equities.

This optimism is further supported by bullish price targets from industry leaders, with Michaël van de Poppe, suggesting BTC could go as high as $300,000 to $600,000 in this market cycle.

Upon writing, Bitcoin was hovering above $59,650, up 9.7% over the past week.