The 11 U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are now posting net inflows for the second month in a row, in a sign of renewed institutional investor appetite for the major cryptocurrency.
But zooming out, the recovery appears to be slower than the monthly headlines suggest.
The ETF has attracted a total of $3.29 billion in investor funds in the past two months, according to data source SosoValue. May got off to a strong start, with net inflows into the ETF hitting $629 million on Friday.
This brings the cumulative net inflows since its inception in January 2024 to $58.72 billion, but still short of October’s all-time high of $61.19 billion. It was also the month when Bitcoin’s spot price surpassed a lifetime high of $126,000.
This gap shows that although demand has recovered, it has not yet made up for the outflows from November 2025 to February 2026. In four months, investors lost $6.38 billion, and Bitcoin plummeted from more than $100,000 to nearly $60,000.
This isn’t necessarily a reason to be cautious, but it does give us a realistic look at where things stand compared to the peak of bullish sentiment in October. This indicates that the recovery in ETF flows is real but incomplete. The coming days will tell whether it gains enough momentum.
