Bitcoin ETFs Draw Near $1.9B in Best Week Since October 2025 — But Outlets Split on the Comparison

3 min readPublished 24 Aug 2026

US spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in close to $1.9 billion last week, their strongest weekly haul since October 2025. That much, three outlets agree on. What they don’t agree on is how big October 2025 actually was — and that gap matters, because the last time inflows surged like this, a crash followed within days.

What happened

Cointelegraph reported Bitcoin ETFs recorded $1.92 billion in net inflows for the week ending Friday, citing SoSoValue data, calling it the strongest weekly performance in nearly 10 months. The Block separately put the figure at $1.9 billion in net inflows for the same week, also citing its own analysis of SoSoValue data. Crypto Briefing likewise reported $1.92 billion in net inflows for the week ending August 22. All three converge on the headline number.

The rally in flows tracked a sharp move in Bitcoin’s price. Cointelegraph, citing CoinGecko, reported Bitcoin jumped more than 20% during the week, briefly surging past $79,000 on Friday after starting near $63,000. Crypto Briefing described the move as roughly 25% higher, with the asset approaching $80,000. Neither figure is confirmed by the other outlet.

Where the sources agree — and where they don’t

The clearest area of agreement is BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). Cointelegraph reported IBIT attracted about $1.33 billion in net inflows across five consecutive trading days, citing Farside Investors data. Per that data, daily inflows opened at $160.2 million on Monday, climbed to a Thursday peak of $503 million, then eased back to $239.3 million by Friday. Crypto Briefing, independently, reported the fund captured $503 million on its peak day — the same figure, from a separate source. That overlap is the most solid data point in the story.

Spot Ether ETFs also had a strong week. Cointelegraph cited ETF analyst Nate Geraci’s estimate of about $700 million in Ether ETF inflows; Crypto Briefing put the figure at roughly $693 million to $697 million. The two numbers are close enough to be treated as consistent.

The disagreement that isn’t resolved anywhere is the October 2025 benchmark. Cointelegraph reported that funds attracted $3.42 billion during that earlier surge. The Block, however, cited $2.7 billion in net inflows for the week ending Oct. 10, 2025, and Crypto Briefing cited $2.71 billion for the same period. That’s roughly a $700 million-plus gap between Cointelegraph’s figure and the other two outlets, none of whom appear to have checked each other’s numbers. It is not clear from the evidence which figure — if either — is the more accurate cut of the SoSoValue dataset.

Why October 2025 matters

Cointelegraph noted that the October 2025 inflow wave preceded the Oct. 10 crash, which it said wiped out roughly $19 billion in leveraged positions within 24 hours — the largest liquidation event in the industry’s history. Cointelegraph also reported that since Oct. 6, 2025, when Bitcoin traded near $124,700, its price had fallen roughly 38%. Whether the current rebound echoes that pattern or diverges from it is, per Cointelegraph’s own account, an open question — and one made harder to answer given the unresolved size discrepancy in the comparison year.

The rest of the picture

Crypto Briefing alone reported a full daily breakdown of total fund flows: $297.6 million on Monday, $189.3 million Tuesday, $517.2 million Wednesday, a peak of $606.3 million Thursday, and $307.5 million Friday. Crypto Briefing also alone reported total assets under management across US spot Bitcoin ETFs at approximately $96 billion, and pointed to an eight-week losing streak that ended in July as the backdrop for the turnaround. It attributed the rally partly to Treasury buyback expansions pushing yields lower and to short-covering as bearish traders were forced to buy back positions — analysis not corroborated by either other outlet.

Cointelegraph, for its part, reported that despite the rebound, US spot Bitcoin ETFs remain about $2.91 billion in net outflows for 2026, after the heaviest monthly outflow of the year — $4.51 billion in June — and $2.43 billion in May withdrawals. Cointelegraph said August has brought $2.38 billion in net inflows through Friday, the strongest month for inflows so far in 2026.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, quoted by Cointelegraph, described IBIT’s daily flow shape as a

“classic Flipping the Bird pattern”

and said he read it as a bullish signal.

What to watch

Whether SoSoValue or Farside Investors publish a reconciled figure for the October 2025 comparison week would settle the $2.7 billion-versus-$3.42 billion question. Beyond that, the obvious test is whether this inflow wave sustains into the following week or fades the way October 2025’s did before the Oct. 10 crash — and whether August closes out as Cointelegraph’s reported $2.38 billion pace holds through month’s end.