In just seven weeks, BlackRock’s IBIT spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund reached $10 billion in assets under management on Thursday after securing its second-largest daily inflows since launching on Jan. 11.
In bitcoin terms, BlackRock’s IBIT fund has reached more than 162,000 BTC
+0.32%
($10 billion) under management, while Fidelity’s FBTC has surpassed 105,000 BTC ($6.3 billion) in assets.
“IBIT is the newest member of the $10 Billion Club, fastest ever to get there,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said. “First $10 billion [is tough] because so much has to come from flows (in IBIT’s case 78% of AUM is flows). Second $10 billion easier because market appreciation [is a] bigger variable.”
“For context, only about 150 out of 3,400 ETFs have more than $10 billion in AUM,” The ETF Store President Nate Geraci said. “The vast majority of those launched 10+ years ago.”
Ark Invest 21 Shares’ ARKB is in third with over 34,000 BTC ($2.1 billion), with the newborn nine spot bitcoin ETFs — excluding Grayscale’s converted GBTC fund — now exceeding 344,000 BTC in assets ($21 billion).
Meanwhile, Grayscale’s higher fee GBTC fund has dropped by 30% to just over 432,000 BTC ($27 billion) from around 619,000 BTC ($38 billion) since the spot bitcoin ETFs began trading.
BlackRock inflows and Grayscale outflows cancel each other out
IBIT registered inflows of $603.9 million yesterday, just shy of the $612.1 million record inflows it generated on Wednesday, per BitMEX Research. However, this was largely canceled out by $598.9 million in outflows from Grayscale’s converted fund — the second-largest to date. Fidelity’s FBTC witnessed $44.8 million worth of inflows and Bitwise’s BITB $21.7 million.
Amid the spike in GBTC outflows, there has also been a pick-up in outflows from Europe’s largest bitcoin exchange-traded products over the last few days. “This is likely to be primarily caused by switching to the U.S. ETFs, but also perhaps some profit taking,” the BitMEX Research analysts said. “Since 11th Jan 2024, there has been $344m outflow from the big 6 European bitcoin ETPs, $50m of which occurred on 29th Feb 2024.”
Net inflows for all the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs combined came in at $92.4 million on Thursday — a significant drop from the record $673.4 million in net inflows on Wednesday.
Globally, 119,604 BTC ($7.4 billion) was absorbed by bitcoin investment vehicles in February, according to K33 Research analyst Vetle Lunde. “A new monthly high, surpassing the GBTC ‘arb’ peak flow from December 2020,” Lunde said.
Net monthly flow to bitcoin investment vehicles globally. Image: K33 Research.
Another big day for spot bitcoin ETF trading volume
Trading volume for the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs also hit the second-largest level of $4.74 billion on Thursday, following a record volume of $7.64 billion on Wednesday as bitcoin’s price reached a high of $64,000. Yesterday’s trading volume was again led by BlackRock’s IBIT, registering $1.9 billion, with Grayscale’s GBTC and Fidelity’s FBTC generating $1.37 billion and $1.01 billion, respectively, according to The Block’s data dashboard.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $62,103, down 0.6% over the past 24 hours, according to The Block’s price page. Bitcoin rose nearly 45% in February — the largest monthly percentage gain since December 2020.
BTC/USD price chart. Image: The Block/TradingView.
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