Capital Rotates? Largest Gold ETF Suffers Huge Outflow as BTC Funds Recover

Meanwhile, a popular analyst said gold “is no serious competitor to Bitcoin” in relation to the ETF adoption pace.

Although it remains the preferred safe-haven asset in times of exponentially increasing uncertainty, gold has seen a fair share of investor exodus, which was solidified by the largest US ETF tracking its performance last week.

At the same time, BTC-related funds ended the same week in the green, albeit Thursday and Friday were deep in the red again.

GLD Sees Biggest Outflow in Years

SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is by far the largest ETF focused on the precious metal, with AUM of more than $174 billion as of March. To demonstrate its dominance in the gold market, the second in line, iShares Gold Trust (IAU), has nearly three times less AUM ($64 billion).

Data shared by the Kobeissi Letter, though, shows that GLD experienced a massive withdrawal on Wednesday, with $3 billion leaving the fund. This “surpasses any previous large daily inflow seen over the last 2 years by +200%,” said the analysts.

Meanwhile, the metal’s price dropped by 4.4% in just a day, which was its most sizeable correction since the January 30 crash when it plummeted by over 11%.

“This all follows global gold ETFs pulling in +$5.3 billion in February and +$18.7 billion in January, marking the 9th straight month of inflows and the best 2-month start to a year on record,” reads their post.

The analyst concluded that investors have locked in gains after the metal’s “historic rally.”

No Comparison With Bitcoin?

While the gold fund bled out on Wednesday, the spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their best day since February 25, with net inflows of $461.77 million. Monday ($458.19 million) and Tuesday ($225.15 million) were also in the green, but the week ended on the wrong foot, with net outflows of $227.83 million on Thursday and $348.83 million on Friday.

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Nevertheless, the weekly net inflows were significantly higher as the funds attracted a total of $568.45 million. This makes it two consecutive weeks in the green after a violent five-week streak in which well over $2 billion was pulled out.

Although these numbers are significantly lower than those quoted for a single gold-backed fund, they still show that BTC is growing in institutional adoption. In fact, Crypto Rover posted an interesting chart showing that the BTC ETFs have enjoyed their first few years more than the gold funds in terms of net inflows.

Bitcoin ETF vs Gold ETF adoption…

Gold is no serious competitor to Bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/EY1EU2mFIn

— Crypto Rover (@cryptorover) March 7, 2026