BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) capped off the trading week with another day of inflows, pulling in $356.2 million on May 9. The fund has now extended its inflow streak to 19 consecutive days — its longest run of inflows so far this year.

IBIT’s inflow streak has been ongoing since April 14, and has coincided with a volatile Bitcoin (BTC) market, with the asset trading between $83,152 and $103,000 over the period. However, market sentiment has been increasing after the asset reclaimed and held above the $90,000 price on April 23 before reclaiming the $100,000 price on May 8 for the first time since Feb. 1.

Bitcoin ETFs ticking along as Bitcoin price spikes

Over the past trading week alone, IBIT posted $1.03 billion in inflows, according to Farside data.

Prior to the current 19-day streak, IBIT’s longest inflow streak in 2025 was a nine-day stretch surrounding US President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, spanning from Jan. 15 to Jan. 28.

Approximately $41.13 billion has flown into the spot Bitcoin ETFs since their launch in January 2024. Source: Farside

IBIT’s longest inflow streak since the spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024 lasted 104 days, stretching from the launch date through April 23, 2024.

The streak coincided with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high of $73,679 in March before pulling back into the mid-$60,000 range.

BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF recently won an award

On April 23, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF was named the “Best New ETF” at the annual etf.com ETF awards. In an X post shortly after, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said it “feels right to me.”

Related: Institutional investors continue to scoop up Bitcoin above $100K

Bitwise’s head of European research, André Dragosch, recently said Bitcoin’s expanding institutional adoption may provide the “structural” inflows necessary to surpass gold’s market capitalization and push its price beyond $1 million by 2029.

“Our in-house prediction is $1 million by 2029. So that Bitcoin will match gold’s market cap and total addressable market by 2029,” he told Cointelegraph during the Chain Reaction daily X spaces show on April 30.

Magazine: Adam Back says Bitcoin price cycle ’10x bigger’ but will still decisively break above $100K

Sovereign Wealth Funds are already gaining exposure to Bitcoin, but significant allocations won’t happen until the United States establishes clearer regulations for the digital assets industry, says SkyBridge founder Anthony Scaramucci.

“I think they are buying it, I think they are buying it on the margin,” Scaramucci, former White House director of communications during US President Donald Trump’s first term, said on Anthony Pompliano’s podcast on May 8.

Legislation will lead to “large blocks of buying”

“I don’t think it is going to be a gigantic groundswell of buying until we greenlight legislation in the United States,” he added. Scaramucci previously said in a February interview with the Financial Times that he expects the US government to propose crypto legislation in November.

SWFs are government-owned investment funds that manage national savings, often built from surplus revenues like oil profits or trade gains. Norway has the largest SWF in the world, with approximately $1.73 trillion in assets under management, followed by China with $1.33 trillion, according to data from Visual Capitalist.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) market cap is approximately $2.05 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Anthony Scaramucci spoke to Anthony Pompliano on his podcast on May 8. Source: Anthony Pompliano

Scaramucci said that if stablecoin regulation is passed, clear guidance is provided for traditional banks to custody of Bitcoin and other digital assets, and there’s progress on tokenizing stocks and bonds, a significant wave of buying from Sovereign Wealth Funds is likely to follow.

“Then I will tell you that there will be large blocks of buying, or people worth 10, 20, 30 trillion dollars, buying a half a billion dollars of Bitcoin, buying a billion of Bitcoin,” Scaramucci said.

Related: Institutional investors continue to scoop up Bitcoin above $100K

“But if you wanna see a million dollar Bitcoin, that’s when someone at a sovereign says ok, this is part of the infrastructure of the world’s financial services architecture,” he added.

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood recently said that the chances of Bitcoin reaching a seven-figure price by 2030 have increased.

“We actually think the odds have gone up that our bull case will be the right number because of what is becoming the institutionalization of this new asset class,” Woods said in February.

Magazine: Adam Back says Bitcoin price cycle’ 10x bigger’ but will still decisively break above $100K

Key takeaways:

ETH price rallied by 22% on May 8, but demand for spot ETH ETFs and derivatives remains muted. 

President Trump’s reversal on certain altcoins aligns with ETH’s renewed outlook. 

Ether (ETH) posted an impressive 29% gain between May 8 and May 9, likely marking the end of a 10-week bear market that bottomed out at $1,385 on April 9. This sharp move triggered the liquidation of over $400 million in short (sell) ETH futures positions, suggesting that whales and market makers were caught off guard.

Despite the surge, traders have maintained a neutral stance in ETH derivatives. Whether this apparent lack of conviction reflects a genuine trend reversal or merely precedes another test of the $2,000 level remains to be seen.

Ether 3-month futures annualized premium. Source: laevitas.ch

The ETH futures premium has yet to exceed the 5% threshold typically associated with a neutral market, indicating that demand for leveraged bullish positions remains notably limited. ETH’s continued underperformance—trailing the altcoin market capitalization by 17% in 2025—helps explain the prevailing lack of investor confidence.

Some analysts interpret this as an opening for further short covering, while others contend that Ethereum’s core fundamentals have yet to improve meaningfully.

Ethereum maintains leadership in decentralization and TVL

Irrespective of Ether’s price action, recent network upgrades have notably enhanced layer-2 scalability. More importantly, they have helped solidify Ethereum’s position as the leading platform in terms of decentralization and security. This is reflected in Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL), which stands at $64 billion. For comparison, the three largest direct competitors—Solana, BNB Chain, and Tron—collectively hold a total value locked (TVL) of $22.3 billion. 

The limited demand for spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has emerged as a key warning sign. Even Ether’s strongest single-day price performance in four years failed to prevent a third consecutive day of net outflows, according to data from Farside Investors. On May 8 alone, US-listed Ether spot ETFs experienced net outflows totaling $16 million.

Ether US-listed spot ETFs’ daily net flows, USD million. Source: Farside Investors

The muted enthusiasm following Ether’s recent bullish momentum can be partly attributed to the sharp 85% drop in Ethereum network fees from January to April. Reduced network activity lowers overall demand for ETH and negatively affects net staking yields, as the protocol’s burn mechanism relies on competition for data processing.

ETH options markets also offer insight into whether whales and market makers anticipate further downside risks. 

Deribit 30-day ETH options delta skew (put-call). Source: Laevitas.ch

Currently, put (sell) options are trading at similar levels to equivalent call (buy) options, indicating a neutral sentiment. This outcome is somewhat discouraging for Ether bulls. Nevertheless, Ether could regain market attention after US President Donald Trump reversed his position following earlier public endorsements of competing altcoins.

Related: Ether clocks ‘insane’ 20% candle post Pectra — A turning point?

According to a Politico report published on May 8, President Trump felt he had been “used” and had severed ties with the lobbyist who reportedly proposed the idea of a strategic crypto reserve. While Trump’s social media post on March 2 specifically mentioned Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and XRP, the subsequent March 6 “Digital Asset Stockpile” Executive Order struck a much more reserved tone.

Despite the evident apathy in both the Ether derivatives market and spot ETF flows, a rally toward the $2,700 level remains plausible—especially if investor sentiment shifts in response to the failed lobbying efforts undertaken by some of Ethereum’s competitors.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.