Crypto for Advisors: Crypto ETFs

In today’s newsletter, Joshua de Vos, from CoinDesk Research, analyzes May’s crypto outflows to explain what current market signals mean.
Then, in “Ask an Expert,” Bryan Courchesne from DAiM addresses how investors can navigate the current market environment.
Crypto ETFs: May Breakdown and What’s Next
May ended two consecutive months of net inflows, with global crypto ETP flows swinging back to heavy redemptions. According to TrackInsight data, global digital-asset investment products recorded $2.39 billion in net outflows, against $1.79 billion of net inflows in April, as total assets under management fell to $141.1 billion from $158.7 billion a month earlier. U.S.-listed vehicles accounted for almost the entire redemption, while flows outside the U.S., which had already cooled in April, turned modestly negative.
The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), which captures a diversified cross-section of the top 20 digital assets, fell 1.11% in May after gaining 5.45% in April. The more concentrated CoinDesk 5 Index (CD5) declined 3.73% and bitcoin itself fell 3.56%, a sharp reversal from April, when bitcoin (up 11.87%) and the CD5 (up 9.91%) led a broad rally. The return hierarchy also inverted: large caps led in April, whereas in May the broad index outperformed, indicating that large-cap assets bore the brunt of the decline while diversified exposure offered relative shelter.
According to data from TrackInsight, outflows were concentrated in bitcoin — and ether-linked instruments globally, while parts of the altcoin market, led by XRP, Hyperliquid and Solana, drew net inflows, a divergence that widened over the month.
Largest ETF Gainers, Globally (by May Net Flows)
NEOS Bitcoin High Income ETF (BTCI): +$141.8 million; $1.24 billion AUMBitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL): +$79.3 million; $672.2 million AUMMorgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT): +$73.9 million; $260.1 million AUMBitwise Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP): +$62.0 million; $71.1 million AUMiShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB): +$56.1 million; $584.3 million AUM21Shares Hyperliquid ETF (THYP): +$49.7 million; $61.6 million AUMNEOS Boosted Bitcoin High Income ETF (XBCI): +$42.8 million; $71.8 million AUMFranklin XRP ETF (XRPZ): +$38.7 ,million; $273.8 million AUMiShares Bitcoin ETP (IB1T): +$33.1 million; $1.06 billion AUM
U.S.-listed products continued to dominate the global crypto ETF market in May. Despite net outflows of $2.37 billion, American-domiciled ETFs closed the month with $119.2 billion in AUM, retaining roughly 84.5% of the $141.1 billion global market, broadly in line with April's 85.1%.
May's headline outflow ended two months of inflows and was overwhelmingly a U.S., large-cap reversal. The gainers list, by contrast, was dominated by income, staking and newly launched products. With the CoinDesk 20 down just 1.11% against a 3.73% fall in the large-cap CD5, diversified and altcoin exposures showed a relative resilience that the flow data corroborated. That resilience has since been overwhelmed: by early June, Bitcoin had fallen to around $62,000, and the major indices were down a further 15% or more, leaving no sign that May's outflows marked a bottom and pointing to intensifying pressure into June.