Since their Jan. 11 debut, spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have stunned Wall Street and drawn attention to the massive amount of trading in and out of their funds. In their short but explosive lifetime, the first Main Street investment vehicles that directly invest in crypto pulled in $10 billion in total assets under management — excluding Grayscale’s GBTC, which converted from an existing trust to an ETF — in just their initial 17 trading days. That includes $1.1 billion AUM in just the past week ending Feb. 9.
The 10 spot bitcoin ETFs undeniably have achieved something historic. Here are five astounding feats they have pulled off in their first days and weeks.
Here's a look at the Top 25 ETFs by assets after 1 month on the market (out of 5,535 total launches in 30yrs). $IBIT and $FBTC in league of own w/ over $3b each and they still have two days to go. $ARKB and $BITB also made list. pic.twitter.com/Yyi1nxukUk
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 8, 2024
1. The Two Biggest ETF Debuts Ever
The two largest and most popular spot bitcoin ETFs each drew more money in, net, than any other ETF in its first month. BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) attracted more than $3 billion each, the highest net inflows since ETFs began in the 1990s. BlackRock held the previous record with its iShares Climate Conscious & Transition MSCI USA ETF, which had $2.2 billion in its debut month in June 2023.
iShares Bitcoin ETF set to hit $5bil in assets in 5 weeks…
$5bil in 5 weeks.
Unprecedented.
Some (many) people had *all* 9 new spot bitcoin ETFs at < $5bil for the *year*.
— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) February 14, 2024
2. …And They Keep Getting Bigger
The combination of the massive inflows into IBIT and the price of bitcoin rising past $50,000 led to BlackRock’s ETF hitting $5 billion in assets under management within its first five weeks of trading. Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, said this “puts it in Top 7% of all ETFs by size in just 23 trading days.” For more perspective, Nate Geraci, president of the registered investment adviser ETF Store, said on X that “Some (many) people had *all* 9 new spot bitcoin ETFs at < $5bil for the *year*.”
Here are some ETF flow charts (Up to 12th Feb) pic.twitter.com/ivm1UAG3Fu
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) February 13, 2024
3. Fastest-Growing ETF Category
Together as a group, the spot bitcoin ETFs’ combined net flows in their first month reached over $3 billion, according to BitMex Research. Balchunas said the gold ETF category took two years to achieve the same milestone. Notably, the net flows were dampened by the gigantic outflows from the 10-year-old Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which converted to an ETF in January and has a 1.5% management fee, the highest of the lot.
4. Most Volume in First Month
When it comes to volume, the BlackRock and Fidelity funds have each traded over $6 billion worth of shares since their inception — a figure only comparable to the launches of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF futures fund (BITO) and State Street’s SPDR Gold Shares Class (GLD) ETF, according to Bloomberg data.
5. Category’s Largest Inflows in a Single Day Since Launch
On Feb. 13, the 10 spot bitcoin ETFs had their largest single-day net inflows since launch: $631 million, just shy of the $655 million in net inflows on Jan. 11. Considering that this ETF category has only been in existence for 22 trading days, that is a remarkable achievement. To put this into perspective, that is 14 times the volume the bitcoin network produced on that day (roughly 900 BTC/day at the day’s price of $50,000). “I don’t think people understand the magnitude of what is happening right now,” bitcoin investor and advocate Anthony Pompliano wrote on X.
There was $631 million of net inflows to the spot bitcoin ETFs yesterday.
That is 14x more demand than the network produced in the same day.
I don't think people understand the magnitude of what is happening right now.
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) February 14, 2024