Bitcoin ETFs End October in the Red as Ether Funds Post Record $1.61 Billion Monthly Outflow

Published November 2, 2026, 1:55 PM PKT. Based on Cointelegraph's November 2, 2026 report on October ETF flows using SoSoValue and Farside Investors data, and The Block's November 2, 2026 report on the same flows.

October ended as a losing month for both of America's big crypto ETF groups, and for Ether funds it was the worst month on record. Investors pulled $643 million from US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Friday, October 30, 2026, according to SoSoValue data reported by Cointelegraph, snapping four consecutive days of inflows and pushing the Bitcoin funds to $515 million in net outflows for October, their first negative month since June. The Bitcoin funds still attracted about $361 million in net inflows for 2026 through October, Cointelegraph reported. The withdrawals followed Bitcoin's drop to $77,000 on Thursday, October 29, after Binance confirmed that hackers had stolen about $6.3 billion in crypto assets, the largest crypto theft on record. The Friday selling was concentrated in the two largest funds. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) led Friday's outflows with $234 million, followed by Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) with $201 million, according to Farside Investors data cited by Cointelegraph.

The Friday exodus that flipped October red

Friday's $643 million Bitcoin ETF outflow was the largest single-day outflow since June 25, 2026, according to SoSoValue data reported by The Block, and it left the Bitcoin funds with $202.6 million in net outflows for the week ending October 30. The Block reported the same Friday figure as $643.3 million, a rounding difference from Cointelegraph's $643 million, not a different flow. The selling reversed a four-day inflow run into Thursday, and it came with heavy liquidations elsewhere in crypto markets, with more than $1.3 billion in leveraged positions liquidated, according to Ari Redbord, global head of policy at blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs, as cited by Reuters. Bitcoin itself steadied after the Friday drop, rising about 1% over 24 hours to $78,491 as of 11:20 p.m. ET on Sunday, November 1, according to The Block's crypto price page, while Ether climbed 1.3% to $2,296 over the same period. The price recovery, alongside the outflow figures, frames the ETF selling as a risk reduction trade after a security shock, not as a disorderly exit from the funds themselves.

Ether's record $1.61 billion month erases its 2026 inflows

The Ether side of the ledger was worse in every direction. Investors withdrew a net $156 million from US spot Ether ETFs on Friday, October 30, according to Cointelegraph, bringing October's net outflows to a record $1.61 billion. The previous monthly high was $1.42 billion in November 2025, Cointelegraph reported, so October beat the old record by about $190 million. The Block reported Friday's Ether outflow as $155.9 million, again a rounding difference, and put the Ether funds' weekly outflows at $431.5 million for the week ending October 30, their largest daily outflow since October 7. October's withdrawals also erased the Ether funds' net inflows for 2026, leaving them with roughly $45 million in net outflows for the year, according to Cointelegraph. That is a sharp reversal from the position at the start of October, and it means the Ether funds gave back their entire 2026 gain, plus a small amount more, in a single month. Hardware wallet maker OneKey's founder and CEO, Yishi, warned on X on Friday that IBIT could face similar security threats because it relies heavily on Coinbase to hold its Bitcoin, Cointelegraph reported, a warning about custody concentration rather than a reported incident at any fund.

What the outflows do not mean: no direct Binance exposure for ETF holders

The outflows do not mean ETF investors held assets at Binance. Spot ETF holders have no direct exposure to Binance, since the underlying Bitcoin is held with regulated custodians, according to Jeff Ko, chief analyst at ViaBTC, as cited by The Block. Ko described the ETF moves mainly as a sentiment shock rather than evidence of direct exposure to Binance risk. Rick Maeda, head of markets at Laevitas, made the same scale point in different terms, noting that Friday's Bitcoin ETF withdrawal was still less than 1% of spot Bitcoin ETF assets, which total $98.14 billion, according to The Block. The context matters because the trigger was an exchange security failure, not a fund failure: Binance said on Sunday, November 1, that it had covered 95% of the stolen assets and had recorded about $3.64 billion in net outflows in the first nine and a half hours after restoring withdrawals, a story MABOnChain has already covered in full. Attention now shifts to the US midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3, and to Binance's promised full proof of reserves, which the exchange has said would take 40 to 50 hours from its October 31 update and was expected by November 3, according to CoinDesk reporting cited in earlier coverage. Neither event changes the October ETF totals reported here, but both will test whether the October selling was a one-month shock or the start of a longer institutional pullback.

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.

Sources

• SoSoValue, October 2026 US spot Bitcoin and Ether ETF flow data (primary source: the October monthly totals, the Friday, October 30 flows and the weekly totals, as reported by Cointelegraph and The Block)
• Cointelegraph, Bitcoin ETFs End October Red, Ether ETFs Lose Record $1.61B (November 2, 2026, secondary source: $643 million Friday Bitcoin outflow, $515 million October Bitcoin outflow, first negative month since June, about $361 million in 2026 Bitcoin inflows, $156 million Friday Ether outflow, record $1.61 billion October Ether outflow, previous $1.42 billion November 2025 high, about $45 million in 2026 Ether net outflows, Yishi custody warning)
• The Block, via TradingView, Spot bitcoin ETFs see largest daily outflows in four months following record Binance hack (November 2, 2026, secondary source: $643.3 million Friday Bitcoin outflow, largest since June 25, $202.6 million weekly Bitcoin outflow, $155.9 million Friday Ether outflow, $431.5 million weekly Ether outflow, Jeff Ko and Rick Maeda assessments, $98.14 billion in spot Bitcoin ETF assets, Sunday Bitcoin and Ether prices)
• Farside Investors, Friday, October 30, 2026 fund-level flow data (secondary source: IBIT $234 million outflow, FBTC $201 million outflow, as cited by Cointelegraph)