Bitcoin spot ETFs see $6.34B inflows in Q3
Bitcoin (BTC)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
Digitaltoday.co.kr reports that Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds recorded $6.34 billion in net inflows during the third quarter, marking the largest quarterly total of the year. This performance accompanied a 42.71 percent price increase for Bitcoin, representing its strongest quarterly return since 2017. The inflows signal a sharp reversal from the second quarter, which saw approximately $5.0 billion in net outflows.
September contributed the most with $2.65 billion, following $3.52 billion in August and just $172 million in July. Ethereum spot ETFs also experienced a resurgence, posting $3.05 billion in net inflows after a $714 million outflow in the previous quarter. Ethereum’s price rose about 71 percent over the same period.
Altcoin-related funds also saw activity, with XRP spot ETFs pulling in $308 million and cumulative inflows reaching $1.79 billion. Solana and Zcash spot ETFs recorded net inflows of $272 million and $246 million, respectively, in September. The key takeaway is the clear shift from second-quarter outflows to third-quarter inflows across major digital assets. The market is now observing how fourth-quarter flows will influence prices.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for BTC, measured when this story was written up on 2 October 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $84,880.05 with a 24-hour spot volume of $1,409,485,417. The 24-hour buy ratio stands at 51.7%, indicating that buying pressure has slightly outweighed selling pressure over the full day. However, shorter timeframes show weaker sentiment, with the 1-hour buy ratio at 28.0% and the 4-hour ratio at 47.6%. Volume delta reflects this intraday shift, showing a negative $54,579,468 in the last hour and a negative $23,211,673 over four hours, compared to a positive $46,980,815 over 24 hours. This suggests that while the day ended with net buying, recent hours have seen more aggressive selling than buying. The cumulative volume delta for the day closed at -$35,109,664, indicating that overall selling pressure exceeded buying pressure by the end of the period.
The latest daily buy ratio of 46.7% sits at the 18th percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 49.2% - weaker buying than most days.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for BTC, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the average buy ratio was 47.7%, making today’s 51.7% ratio an increase of 4.0 percentage points. Trading volume was 1.09 times the weekly average, suggesting slightly higher activity than usual. Despite this uptick, the coin experienced zero days of net buying over the past seven days. The total volume delta for the eight-day period was -$414,515,367, showing a consistent trend of net outflows. This indicates that today’s positive buy ratio is an isolated event within a broader context of weekly selling pressure.