Key Points
- Grayscale’s GBTC bitcoin holdings have decreased by approximately 50% in three months since the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs launch.
- Despite the decrease, the rise in bitcoin’s price has resulted in a less significant decrease in GBTC’s assets under management in dollar terms.
Grayscale’s GBTC has seen a significant decrease in its bitcoin holdings since the launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S. on January 11.
The decrease has been around 50% in the past three months, contrasting with the nine newly launched ETFs from BlackRock, Fidelity, and others.
Grayscale’s GBTC Conversion
Unlike the new ETFs, Grayscale’s pre-existing Bitcoin Trust was converted into an ETF rather than starting from scratch. It held approximately 619,220 Bitcoin (BTC) when spot bitcoin trading began.
GBTC also has a higher fee than its competitors, charging 1.5% compared to the current 0.12% fee for BlackRock’s IBIT.
Decrease in Assets Under Management
Despite the decrease in bitcoin holdings, the rise in bitcoin’s price has resulted in a less significant decrease in GBTC’s assets under management in dollar terms. The assets have fallen 31% from a value of $28.7 billion on January 11 to $19.8 billion at current prices.
BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC spot ETFs have been the primary beneficiaries in terms of market share by bitcoin holdings. GBTC’s market share has fallen from effectively 100% on launch day to just 37.3%.
The combined assets held by all the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs are now at nearly 840,000 BTC, more than 4% of bitcoin’s total 21 million supply.
For two trading days in a row, BlackRock’s IBIT and Grayscale’s GBTC have been the only U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs to record any flows.
Hong Kong’s Spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission approved several spot bitcoin and ether ETFs on Monday, managed by firms including China Asset Management, Harvest Global, Bosera, and HashKey.
The spot bitcoin funds aim to launch as early as late April, provided that interactions with the regulator proceed smoothly.
Bitcoin’s Price Amid Geopolitical Tensions
Bitcoin is currently trading for $63,459. The largest cryptocurrency is down 4% over the past 24 hours and 10% over the past week amid geopolitical tensions but remains 50% up year-to-date.
Bitcoin’s halving event, when the miners’ block subsidy reward gets cut in half from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, is now just four days away.
The estimated countdown is based on Bitcoin’s average block generation time of 10 minutes, setting a potential date of April 20 at around 3:30 a.m. UTC (11:30 p.m. ET on April 19).
