Bitcoin and Ether ETFs See $1.1B Inflows: Is the Coldcard Hack Fueling the Rally?

Bitcoin and Ether ETFs See $1.1B Inflows: Is the Coldcard Hack Fueling the Rally?

U.S. spot bitcoin and ether ETFs saw a combined $1.1 billion in inflows last week, marking the strongest week for either category since April, according to The Block's analysis of SoSoValue data.

Bitcoin ETFs Lead the Charge

Spot bitcoin ETFs took in about $853.5 million, their largest weekly total since the week ending April 17, which saw $996.4 million in inflows. Notably, bitcoin ETFs recorded inflows in all five trading sessions, led by $244.4 million on Wednesday and $211.5 million on Tuesday.

BlackRock's IBIT accounted for a whopping $693.7 million of the total BTC fund inflows, representing over 80% of the total. Fidelity's FBTC followed with $116.4 million, making the two largest bitcoin funds the primary beneficiaries.

The Coldcard Exploit Connection

Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, pointed out that IBIT, FBTC, and several other funds have drawn inflows every day since the Coldcard hack, making it "hard not to see causation in the correlation." He mused that it would be "ironic, but somehow on brand, if the hack of btc in cold storage (seemingly worst [possible] situation) marked the beginning of next run."

The exploit, which surfaced July 30, has led to at least $111 million in thefts, with estimated losses potentially exceeding $130 million. The hack drove record inflows to centralized exchanges and triggered a panic onchain, with about 890,000 BTC moving over seven days, a 2026 high.

However, the Coldcard narrative is complicated by the fact that ether ETFs also posted their best week since April, despite ether holders having no exposure to a Bitcoin-only hardware wallet vulnerability. The inflow run for ether ETFs began on Aug. 3, several days after the vulnerability was disclosed.

Bitcoin rose about 3% on the week, touching an August high above $65,300 on Friday following a massive U.S. jobs miss, which traders interpreted as reducing the likelihood of a September rate hike.

Ether Funds Extend Positive Run to Five Weeks

Spot ether ETFs have now logged five consecutive positive weeks, their longest run of 2026. Thursday produced the largest daily gain at $92.2 million, while Monday's $11.4 million outflow was the only negative session.

The funds held $10.74 billion in net assets Friday against $11.46 billion in cumulative net inflows, leaving them about $711 million underwater on a mark-to-market basis. That gap has narrowed from roughly $2.0 billion in mid-June.

Meanwhile, whales are aggressively accumulating ETH, with wallets holding between 10,000 and 100,000 ETH increasing their balances to a record 19.6 million ETH from about 14 million ETH in mid-2025, according to CryptoQuant.

Volume Remains Near Multi-Year Lows

Despite the inflows, trading volume remains subdued. Bitcoin ETF trading volume totaled about $8.19 billion on the week, down 9% from the previous week's $9.02 billion. That's the second-lowest full trading week since October 2024. Ether ETF volume came to roughly $2.38 billion, down about 21% from the prior week.

2026 Losses Persist

The rebound has not erased the funds' overall losses for 2026. Bitcoin ETFs remain at approximately $4.44 billion in net outflows since the start of the year, while ether ETFs are down roughly $873 million.

Bitcoin traded near $65,100 on Saturday morning, while ether changed hands around $1,920.