The lack of demand for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is raising concerns about Bitcoin’s prospects for the rest of the year, even as the US government appears to be nearing the end of its 41-day shutdown.
On Monday, the US Senate approved a funding package, bringing Congress one step closer to ending the shutdown. Legislation is now headed for a full vote in the House of Representatives, which may occur as early as Wednesday, CBS News reported on Monday.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he hopes the passage will take “hours, not days,” during Monday morning’s Senate meeting, according to the Military Times.
ETF Inflows Remain Flat Despite Positive Economic News
Despite optimistic news from the US, spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF investments remained flat on Monday, with just $1.2 million of inflows, according to data from Farside Investors.
“Despite the US shutdown seemingly ending, and the S&P and Gold bouncing hard, Bitcoin ETFs saw NO bid yesterday,” said Capriole Investments founder, Charles Edwards, adding that this is not a dynamic we want to see continue.
“Risk assets usually see a strong bid in the weeks out of the Shutdown. Still time to turn this ship around, but it needs to turn,” Edwards wrote in a Tuesday X post.
Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows were the primary driver of Bitcoin’s momentum in 2025, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, told Cointelegraph recently.
BlackRock’s fund was the only one with positive year-to-date (YTD) inflows among all ETF issuers, having received $28.1 billion while the other issuers saw $1.27 million of cumulative outflows, Cointelegraph reported on Oct. 28.
Analysts Interpret Current Market Conditions as Mid-Cycle Consolidation
While some investors were concerned about the end of the bull market cycle, analysts from Bitfinex exchange saw this as a “mid-cycle consolidation phase” rather than a cascading sell-off.
“The current correction exhibits a structure strikingly similar to those observed in June 2024 and February 2025, both pivotal inflection points where Bitcoin balanced between recovery and deeper contraction,” the analysts told Cointelegraph, adding:
The present drawdown aligns closely with the average magnitude of prior mid-cycle retracements, with each corrective phase since the onset of the current bull market in 2023 having reached roughly 22 percent from the all-time high before reversal.
Notably, about 72% of the BTC supply was still in profit when Bitcoin dropped to $100,000, which is a good signal for a mid-cycle consolidation, but the wider recovery will need “renewed inflows of demand” from institutional and retail participants, explained Bitfinex’s analysts.