MW Bitcoin ETFs rake in $14.8 billion as 'whales' push the crypto's price to all-time highs

By Gordon Gottsegen

'Investors can no longer ignore bitcoin,' says one analyst

As the U.S. government mulls over the future of crypto regulation during its self-proclaimed "crypto week," investors are also looking toward a potentially bright future for cryptocurrencies - through their portfolios.

Investors have been pouring billions of dollars this year into bitcoin (BTCUSD), the world's largest cryptocurrency, through trades on crypto exchanges and purchases of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

This coincides with a recent bull run in the price of bitcoin. On July 1, the token was trading around $105,000. After two strong weeks, bitcoin has surpassed previous records set in May and reached an all-time high above $123,000 on Monday.

"Overall bitcoin demand started to grow again after a small contraction at the end of June. Bitcoin apparent demand grew by 77,000 bitcoin, and is increasing above trend again," Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, told MarketWatch. "This indicates fresh demand from fresh investors."

Apparent demand measures bitcoin buying from new investors versus the supply coming from long-term holders and miners. Positive demand shows that interest in bitcoin from investors is outpacing supply, which can drive the price higher. The current increase in demand comes after a minor slump in June.

In addition to strong demand for bitcoin itself, investors are also buying up bitcoin ETFs. Net cumulative inflows into U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs hit $14.8 billion on the year through Monday, surpassing the level of inflows seen at this point last year. This reflects a significant bump in the buying of bitcoin ETFs compared with the weak flows seen earlier this year.

BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF IBIT saw $953.5 million worth of inflows alone last Friday, and then another $394.7 million on Monday, according to Farside Investors. The most popular spot bitcoin ETFs collectively saw almost $1.2 billion worth of inflows on Thursday and over $1 billion on Friday, according to Farside.

Since their public debut in January 2024, a total of $52.3 billion has flowed into spot bitcoin ETFs through Monday, according to Farside data. That's roughly the same as the gross domestic product of the entire state of Wyoming.

When demand for spot bitcoin ETFs grows, the ETF providers have to go out and buy more bitcoin to provide the underlying asset. As a result, the money currently flowing into spot bitcoin ETFs means that institutions are buying bitcoin directly to hold in their wallets.

"Demand continues to come from large investors, as seen by the bitcoin balance of whales reaching a new all-time high of 3,541,000 bitcoin," Moreno at CryptoQuant told MarketWatch.

Regulatory attention, such as the U.S. government's current push to adopt new crypto legislation, has led large institutional investors to take bitcoin more seriously.

"Bitcoin has been a retail favorite for a while but the institutional side of things is where the next leg of growth really stems from. With developments over the last few years and a regulatory framework in progress, investors can no longer ignore bitcoin," Mike Dickson, head of research at Horizon Investments, said in an email.

While bitcoin has always been popular among retail investors, the growing adoption of spot bitcoin ETFs means that many individual investors are opting to invest indirectly into bitcoin through large institutions, as opposed to holding the crypto in their own wallets. This has resulted in institutions and large crypto holders - also known as "whales" - accounting for a larger percentage of bitcoin ownership.

Read more: Small retail investors hold about 9.5% of bitcoin. Here's why that doesn't tell the full story.

This obfuscates the role of retail investors in the price movements of bitcoin. But as Dickson noted, it's the adoption of the crypto by large institutions that has the potential to push the price of bitcoin higher. Moreno said that technical trends point to the price of bitcoin potentially hitting $140,000 in the coming months.

The price of bitcoin fell 3% on Tuesday after hitting its record high the day before. It was trading around $117,000 at last check.

-Gordon Gottsegen

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July 15, 2025 14:34 ET (18:34 GMT)

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