It was all going so well.

Investors started 2026 by throwing over $1.5 billion in fresh cash at Bitcoin and Ethereum US exchange-traded funds over the space of two days.

The price of the two largest digital coins by market cap rose following the investment. But now, both assets are both lying flat after investors this week pulled $1.3 billion out of the Bitcoin funds and $351 million from their Ethereum counterparts, according to data from Farside Investors.

Bitcoin was recently priced at nearly $90,623, up 1% over the past week. Ethereum was trading for $3,093, unmoved over a seven-day period. It traded as high as $3,293 mid-week.

The ETF redemptions come after a good start to the year following weeks of negative flows.

Crypto markets ended 2025 in the red after struggling to recover from a massive October sell-off when over $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated — the largest such liquidation event in the history of digital assets.

Despite notching new highs in 2025 off the back of pro-crypto US President Donald Trump’s victory and subsequent digital asset legislation, both Bitcoin and Ethereum are now trading well below their records.

Still, investors need to pay attention to the bigger picture, market observers this week told DL News, with the debasement trade — a strategy to hedge against weakening currencies — likely to still be in play this year.

Investors were particularly focused on Bitcoin along with gold and other precious metals as part of the trade in 2025. Experts have said the move is likely to be a long-term strategy as the US and other major economies take on more debt.

Investors in the US can now easily buy exposure to crypto via the ETFs, approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2024, and managed by major asset managers like BlackRock, Fidelity and Grayscale.

Other major digital assets such as XRP and Solana were up 4% over a seven-day period, trading for $2.09 and $136, respectively.