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Bitcoin ETFs Hold $85 Billion in Assets Despite Bitcoin’s Price Decline
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs continue to manage approximately $85 billion in assets despite the sharp drop in Bitcoin’s price.
Exchange-traded funds investing in Bitcoin are maintaining multi-billion-dollar asset levels even amid a significant $BTC price collapse. However, this resilience is not necessarily as bullish as many assume.
According to one analyst, the stability is largely driven by market makers and arbitrage hedge funds. These participants actively trade rather than hold assets in anticipation of price appreciation.
Bitcoin traded above $126,000 in early October but recently fell to nearly $60,000. Despite the nearly 50% price decline, the 11 U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded only $8.5 billion in net outflows combined. The funds still manage $85 billion in assets — more than 6% of Bitcoin’s total circulating supply.
Several analysts, including those interviewed by CoinDesk at the Consensus conference in Hong Kong last week, cited these figures as evidence of bullish market sentiment.
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, argues that ETF resilience is driven not only by long-term holders but also by market makers and arbitrage-focused hedge funds holding neutral positions.
“This reflects the structural nature of ETF ownership, where market makers and arbitrage hedge funds play a dominant role. They primarily hold hedged positions. Additionally, there are long-term institutional investors with low turnover and extended investment horizons,” Thielen wrote in a client note.
According to 13F filings for the end of 2025, between 55% and 75% of shares in BlackRock’s IBIT ETF (with $61 billion in AUM) are held by market makers and arbitrage hedge funds. These participants maintain hedged or market-neutral positions rather than making outright directional bets on Bitcoin.
Market makers provide liquidity to exchange order books, facilitating the execution of large buy and sell orders at stable prices. They profit from the bid-ask spread and therefore aim to remain market-neutral to avoid exposure to price volatility.
Similarly, arbitrage hedge funds take offsetting positions across two markets — for example, spot ETFs and futures — profiting from price discrepancies.
As a result, neither group exerts a directional (bullish or bearish) influence on the market.
Thielen added that in the fourth quarter, market makers reduced their positions by approximately $1.6–2.4 billion when Bitcoin was trading around $88,000. This reflects “a decline in speculative demand and reduced arbitrage inventory needs.”
