BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF racks up $25 billion in yearly inflows despite BTC price slump

• BlackRock's spot bitcoin ETF (IBIT) is sixth in ETF inflows in 2025 despite posting a negative return.
• IBIT even took in more money than the leading gold ETF (GLD) despite that fund gaining 65% this year.
• "Boomers putting on a HODL clinic," wrote Bloomberg's Eric Balchunas.

Spot bitcoin ETF investors may have shown themselves to be anything but momentum chasers this year.

While it's no secret that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has been a wild success since it opened for business in January 2024, data compiled by Bloomberg's crack ETF analyst Eric Balchunas shows that success in another light.

So far in 2025, IBIT ranks sixth out of all ETFs in inflows, bringing in more than $25 billion of investor cash. In a list of the top 25 funds by inflows, ranked first is Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF (VOO) with $145 billion, and ranked 25th is the iShares S&P 100 ETF (OEF) with $10 billion.

Of the entire list of those top 25, noted Balchunas, IBIT is the only one with a negative return for the year — down 9.6% as of midday Friday. Even the SPDR Gold ETF (GLD) — in eight place with $20.8 billion — took in less money than IBIT despite showing a massive 65% advance in 2025.

"Crypto twitter's knee-jerk reaction is to whine about the [BTC] return," said Balchunas. "But the real takeaway is that it was 6th place DESPITE the negative return (boomers putting on a HODL clinic)."

"That's a really good sign long term," he continued. "If you can do $25 billion in bad year imagine the flow potential in good year."

• As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
• GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
• Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

• A number of notable market analysts of late have dismissed the idea of bitcoin's four-year cycle and the nearly certain bear market that might imply.
• Fidelity's Jurrien Timmer, however, says the action so far this time around lines up about perfectly with past four-year cycles and the current bearish action should last deep into 2026.

Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.