Key Points
- U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs see positive inflows this week, surpassing Monday’s outflows.
- Grayscale’s GBTC fund experiences a slowdown in outflows.
This week, the combined U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) witnessed a positive shift in flows. This comes after a significant net outflow on Monday.
On Wednesday, net inflows reached $113.5 million, following Tuesday’s addition of $40.3 million. This was enough to surpass Monday’s net outflows of $87.5 million, as per data from CoinGlass.
Leading Bitcoin ETFs
Fidelity’s FBTC spot Bitcoin ETF led Wednesday’s inflows, adding $116.7 million. BlackRock’s IBIT fund, usually dominant, came second with $42 million. Bitwise’s BITB product ranked third with inflows of $23 million. The remaining ETFs added less than $4 million each. Total net inflows stand at $12.2 billion.
Fidelity’s FBTC is nearing 150,000 BTC ($10 billion) under management. BlackRock’s IBIT leads the new spot Bitcoin ETFs with over 256,000 BTC ($17 billion).
Grayscale’s GBTC Fund
Meanwhile, Grayscale’s converted GBTC fund has dropped 47% from around 619,000 BTC to 328,000 BTC ($22 billion). GBTC’s current 1.5% fee is higher compared to 0.25% for FBTC and IBIT.
Despite the outflows, GBTC is unlikely to lower its fee. This is due to the ‘bull market subsidy’ effect, where assets increase in value despite outflows, as explained by Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.
Monday’s outflows of $302.6 million for GBTC significantly contributed to the total net outflow registered by the spot Bitcoin ETFs that day. However, GBTC’s outflows slowed to $81.9 million on Tuesday and $75.1 million on Wednesday.
A report from Coinbase earlier this month suggested that the potential sale of 35.9 million GBTC shares by Genesis Global Holdco LLC, valued at around $2 billion, might have caused recent GBTC selling pressure.
The outflows from Grayscale’s GBTC fund peaked at $642.5 million on March 18, consistently averaging around $300 million per day until Tuesday’s drop below $100 million. Total outflows for GBTC stand at $15.2 billion.
Declining Daily Flows and Volumes
Although outflows from Grayscale’s GBTC seem to be slowing, the overall flows for the spot Bitcoin ETFs are also declining since peaking at a net daily inflow of $1.05 billion on March 12.
March was a significant month for the spot Bitcoin ETFs by trading volume, nearly tripling February’s total to top $111 billion. However, daily volume has also been in decline, generating $2.3 billion in trading on Wednesday.
Despite the decline, daily trading volumes remain above the average levels witnessed in January and February. Total volume now stands at $190 billion.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $66,234. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap traded flat over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin’s price has dropped 6% over the past week but remains 57% up year-to-date.