Bitcoin ETFs face slowdown as Trump’s crypto executive order falls short on BTC-specific strategic reserve

Inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. remained sluggish on Jan. 23 as President Donald Trump’s efforts to form a working group on digital assets under an executive order failed to meet market expectations.

According to data from SoSoValue, the 12 spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $188.65 million in net inflows on Thursday, marking their fourth consecutive day of declining inflows since the beginning of the week, when they recorded over $1 billion in inflows.

BlackRock’s IBIT attracted the lion’s share of inflows, totaling $154.6 million, leading Bitcoin ETFs in inflows for the fifth consecutive day while Bitwise’s BITB followed with inflows of $42.15 million.

More modest inflows that contributed to the positive momentum came from Invesco Galaxy’s BTCO, Grayscale’s mini Bitcoin Trust, Fidelity’s FBTC and ARK 21Shares’ ARKB which logged inflows of $12.38 million, $11.9 million, $9.16 million and $8.35 million respectively.

Grayscale’s GBTC, which stood out as the only outlier on the day, recorded $49.94 million in outflows, offsetting some of the inflows from the other ETFs. The remaining five BTC ETFs saw zero inflows.

The total daily trading volume for Bitcoin investment vehicles reached $9.59 billion on Jan. 23, marking the second-highest level ever recorded, just behind the $10.39 billion peak seen on March 5.

Notably, the dip in inflows to Bitcoin ETFs coincided with a shift in Bitcoin’s price momentum after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that is aimed at establishing a working group focused on digital assets that fell short of expectations.

While the order set out to advise the White House on digital asset policy and evaluate the creation of a government-held digital asset stockpile—comprising cryptocurrencies seized during investigations—it stopped short of establishing a dedicated strategic Bitcoin reserve, a move many crypto advocates had been hoping for.

Initially, Bitcoin responded positively to the announcement, climbing as much as 2.7% to reach $106,732. However, after the full details of the executive order were released, sentiment shifted, and the largest cryptocurrency by market value dropped nearly 4%, hitting $102,517. Since then, Bitcoin (BTC) has shown signs of recovery, gaining 2.1% to trade at $104,991 per coin.