Bitcoin's "silent IPO" just got a standing ovation from Wall Street 💰

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds attracted roughly $1 billion in net inflows for the week, their strongest showing since April and the third-best week since last October, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, who announced the figure on Saturday. The rebound comes after months of uneven flows and signals renewed investor appetite for vehicles tracking $BTC, even as regulatory uncertainty around digital assets persists.

Balchunas described the week as part of Bitcoin's "silent IPO," a term popularized by investor Jordi Visser in November to describe what he viewed as a changing of the guard among $BTC holders. Under that framework, early investors distributed supply into growing demand from ETFs and other institutional buyers, keeping prices subdued despite substantial new capital entering the market. The theory coincided with a deterioration in ETF flows compared with earlier periods of stronger demand, making this week's rebound particularly notable.

The inflows also followed a major security incident involving Coldcard, a Bitcoin hardware wallet developed by Coinkite, that resulted in roughly $116 million worth of $BTC being stolen. The exploit was linked to a flaw in how affected devices generated wallet keys, allowing attackers to compromise funds held in wallets created using vulnerable firmware. The incident has renewed scrutiny over the risks of crypto self-custody.

On Friday, Balchunas suggested the Coldcard hack could ultimately strengthen the appeal of spot Bitcoin ETFs among investors uncomfortable with the technical and security responsibilities of self-custody, pointing to the surge in ETF inflows following the breach as a potential, though unproven, link. While acknowledging that correlation does not imply causation, Balchunas said, "long-term I can't imagine there aren't some who migrate over," referring to investors potentially shifting from cold storage to ETFs.