Despite being a favored safe-haven asset amidst rising uncertainty, gold has experienced notable capital flight, as evidenced by substantial withdrawals from the largest US ETF tracking its value.

Simultaneously, funds associated with Bitcoin concluded the same week positively, although Thursday and Friday saw declines.

GLD Experiences Significant Outflow

The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) holds the position of the largest ETF focused on gold, boasting assets under management (AUM) exceeding $174 billion as of March. In comparison, the second-largest, iShares Gold Trust (IAU), has nearly three times less, at $64 billion.

Recent data from the Kobeissi Letter reveals that GLD incurred a staggering $3 billion in withdrawals on Wednesday. This figure eclipses any previous daily outflow recorded over the past two years by over 200%, according to analysts.

Concurrently, the metal’s price fell by 4.4% in a single day, marking its largest correction since January’s 11% drop.

“This follows global gold ETFs attracting over $5.3 billion in February and $18.7 billion in January, leading to the ninth consecutive month of inflows, setting a record for the best start to a year,” reads the report from Kobeissi.

The analysts concluded that investors are cashing in gains post the metal’s historical rally.

Is Bitcoin No Competitor?

While the gold fund suffered losses on Wednesday, spot Bitcoin ETFs celebrated their best performance since February 25, accruing $461.77 million in inflows. Although Monday and Tuesday also saw positive net inflows, the week ended negatively with outflows of $227.83 million on Thursday and $348.83 million on Friday.

Nonetheless, the total weekly net inflows amounted to $568.45 million, marking two successive weeks of gains following a tumultuous five-week period during which over $2 billion was removed.

While these figures pale compared to the outflows from a single gold-backed fund, they indicate growing institutional adoption of Bitcoin. An interesting chart shared by Crypto Rover illustrated that Bitcoin ETFs have outpaced gold ETFs in net inflows during their initial years.

Bitcoin ETF vs Gold ETF Adoption…
Gold is no serious competitor to Bitcoin. Pic — Crypto Rover (@cryptorover) March 7, 2026