Bitcoin ETFs lose $201.8M as altcoins see inflows – Is a shift starting?

The U.S. Spot Bitcoin [BTC] ETF has resumed outflows. After recording inflows for nine straight days, BTC ETFs recorded outflows on 28th August worth $201.81 million. Interestingly, in these nine days, the BTC ETFs recorded inflows worth $3.04 billion as per SoSo Value data.

This influx of inflows was followed by the surge in Bitcoin’s price action, which went from $63K to breaking past the long-standing resistance level at $80K. Now since BTC has fallen to $78,275.24 at press time, the change from inflows to outflows makes sense.

However, the sentiment is not the same globally. As BitWise’s European BTC1 ETP recently reached $155.5 million in assets, up from earlier levels around $100–$130 million.

How did other altcoin ETFs perform?

Usually, Ethereum [ETH] follows a very similar pattern to Bitcoin ETFs. However, this time, ETH ETFs continued to maintain their inflow streak, recording $102.18 million worth of inflows on the 28th of August.

In fact, in these ten days, Ethereum ETFs recorded inflows worth $1.52 billion. This coincided with Ethereum’s price action surging from around $1,900 to $2,458.84 at press time.

Following Ethereum’s trail, other altcoin ETFs also recorded inflows. Wherein XRP ETFs recorded inflows worth $26.20 million, Solana [SOL] ETFs saw $18.08 million in inflows, and HYPE ETFs too saw $4.48 million in inflows on the 28th of August. At the same time, XRP ETFs also hit a new 2026 record of $2 billion in combined Assets Under Management (AUM).

Meanwhile, AMBCrypto also reported that the overall Solana ETFs accumulated roughly $1.7 billion in total inflows. In this, Bitwise’s Solana Staking ETF, BSOL, emerged as the largest beneficiary as the fund crossed $1 billion in AUM.

What’s behind this shift in sentiment?

The overall ETF sentiment suggests investors may be shifting towards altcoins before the September effect kicks in. For background, Bitcoin’s September weakness was particularly notable from 2017 through 2022.

This was the time when BTC posted six consecutive negative September returns. However, the pattern started fading away considerably with positive September closes in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

In fact, with the altcoin season index sitting at 30 at press time, representing a ‘Bitcoin Season,’ there is room for Bitcoin to maintain the lead over altcoins.

Final Summary

• Bitcoin ETF has shifted from inflows to outflows as the price action drops from $80K to $78K.
• Other altcoin ETFs did not follow a similar pattern to spot BTC ETFs.