Spot Bitcoin ETF Outflows Widened to $120 Million on September 9 as ARKB, Not Grayscale, Led Redemptions

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs posted a $120.2 million net outflow on September 9, the second straight negative session and roughly two and a half times September 8's $46.6 million outflow, according to Farside Investors. The composition changed along with the size: Ark and 21Shares' ARKB redeemed $78.0 million, its largest single-day outflow of the past week, more than Grayscale's GBTC, which eased to a $27.2 million outflow from $65.5 million the day before. BlackRock's IBIT also turned negative at $19.5 million. Morgan Stanley's MSBT was the only fund to add assets, at $4.5 million. September 8's outflow was explainable almost entirely by GBTC's redemption pattern; September 9's was not.

What happened

Farside's per-issuer data show the outflow broadening across the two sessions:

(EZBC, BRRR, HODL, BTCW and the Grayscale BTC mini trust showed no flow on either day.)

On September 8, four of the six active issuers were net positive and the aggregate outflow tracked Grayscale's redemption almost dollar for dollar, a pattern CryptoSocial covered the same day. On September 9, only Morgan Stanley's MSBT was positive. ARKB's redemption alone exceeded GBTC's, and BlackRock's IBIT, the category's largest fund by assets, flipped from a $10.7 million inflow to a $19.5 million outflow. CoinDesk and cryptometer.io both reported the same per-issuer breakdown independently of Farside.

Why it matters

A daily net-flow print is a primary-market number: it nets the shares authorized participants created against the shares they redeemed that day, not secondary-market trading volume. That distinction is why the same headline outflow can mean different things depending on which fund it comes from.

GBTC's redemptions have run for well over a year, largely independent of price action, tied to legacy holders exiting the vehicle that once traded at a persistent discount before it converted to an ETF and cheaper alternatives existed. A GBTC-led outflow day, like September 8, says little about fresh demand elsewhere, since four other issuers were still adding assets that same session.

ARKB and IBIT carry none of that legacy baggage. They are lower-fee, ETF-native since launch, and IBIT in particular is the most heavily traded fund in the category. When both post net redemptions on the same day that GBTC's own outflow is decelerating, the marginal outflow pressure has moved from a single structural holdout to funds whose flows are a closer read on active, primary-market demand. That is a different signal than "GBTC is still bleeding," and it is the reason the September 9 print is worth separating from September 8's rather than folding into one two-day "$166.8 million outflow" headline.

None of this identifies who redeemed or why. Authorized participants create and redeem in blocks to arbitrage the ETF's share price against its underlying bitcoin holdings; a redemption can reflect an institutional holder exiting, a market maker unwinding a basis position, or portfolio rebalancing unrelated to a directional view on bitcoin. The data shows where the flow occurred, not the motive behind it.

What to watch

Whether ARKB's redemption was a one-day event or continues into the next print: Farside typically posts each day's figures the following morning at farside.co.uk/btc.

Whether GBTC's outflow keeps decelerating ($65.5m to $27.2m over two days) or reaccelerates, which would suggest the legacy-redemption story isn't finished.

The Consumer Price Index for August, due September 11 at 8:30 a.m. ET, the next scheduled macro print that could move positioning across risk assets, including the ETF category, in the following sessions.

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