Analyst: BTC outflows driven by AI, not gold

Crypto analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera argued on X that the common market belief of funds moving from Bitcoin (BTC) to gold this year is incorrect. He noted that since the launch of spot BTC ETFs in 2024, net inflows have surpassed $53 billion, a pace that took gold ETFs approximately five years to match. During the recent market correction, spot BTC ETFs experienced about $4.4 billion in net outflows over 13 consecutive trading days. However, Perera asserted that these funds moved not to gold, but to AI and semiconductor-related stocks. Subsequently, as risk-off sentiment intensified, the capital shifted again to U.S. Treasurys and cash. He added that while gold ETFs also saw outflows, this was largely due to investors switching to lower-fee gold ETFs rather than moving capital into BTC.