U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds took in $526.6 million on Monday, their largest daily inflow in nearly a month, even as bitcoin itself slipped about 0.5% to trade near $81,400 on Tuesday morning. The Monday print, tracked by Farside Investors' daily tables, reverses the tone from Friday, when the same funds lost $82.4 million. Cumulative net inflows into the U.S. spot bitcoin complex now stand near $57.4 billion, with total net assets around $105 billion. Ether funds went the other way on Monday, losing $103.3 million, and Solana products shed $6.7 million. The split left the bitcoin complex as the only major category taking in money at the start of the week.
Korean chip stocks set the morning tone
The price slip came from Asia, not from the funds. South Korea's Kospi index fell 3.73% on Tuesday to its lowest close since 7 April, as SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics declined on renewed worries about AI spending, a move CoinDesk flagged as the driver of the crypto session. Nasdaq 100 futures were off about 0.3%. Ether fell 0.9% to near $2,385, in line with bitcoin, while the CoinDesk DeFi index lost 1.2%, the weakest of the major benchmarks. Oil stayed firm, with Brent crude near $111 a barrel as Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia kept supply risk priced in, a level we last covered when Brent first touched $110 on Friday. About 70 S&P 500 companies report earnings this week, with General Motors before the bell and United Airlines after the close on Tuesday.
Options traders are paying for protection
Derivatives desks are not treating the dip as over. On Deribit, puts outtraded calls by more than two to one over the past 24 hours, and the 30 October $80,000 put was the single busiest contract. Out-of-the-money puts cost 2.5 to 4 volatility points more than equivalent calls across expiries, a bearish skew that shows traders paying up for downside cover even while open interest leans toward calls at $90,000 to $100,000 for the end of the month. Bitcoin open interest fell 0.6% to $27.4 billion with funding near 8.8% annualized, and liquidations over 24 hours came to $155.1 million, down more than half from the previous day. Glassnode also flagged weak spot demand behind the recent bounce. The practical level to watch is the same one from the weekend: support at $80,000, with Monday's ETF buying the clearest sign that someone is still willing to catch the coin there. The XRP funds, meanwhile, quietly ended their 13-week inflow streak.