Bitcoin spot ETF trading volume approaches nearly billions, are Europeans also starting to buy? Already holding over 60,000 BTC.
The Bitcoin spot ETF entered its third day of trading yesterday with a total trading volume of nearly billions of US dollars. Just the IBIT from BlackRock alone has a higher trading volume than all the ETFs launched in 2023 combined. Currently, the total market value of the 11 ETFs is $27.9 billion, holding approximately 64,883 bitcoins. However, it still seems far from the 189,150 bitcoins held by MicroStrategy.
Let me put into context how insane $10b in volume is in first 3 days. There were 500 ETFs launched in 2023. Today, they did a COMBINDED $450m in volume. The best one did $45m. And many have had months to get going. $IBIT alone is seeing more activity than the entire '23 Freshman… https://t.co/wV1zQFtPW1
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) January 16, 2024
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Trading Volume Reaches $10 Billion, IBIT Outperforms All 2023 New ETFs
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart tweeted that the total trading volume of the Bitcoin spot ETF has reached nearly $10 billion within 3 days.
Eric Balchunas explained how extraordinary this trading volume is:
In 2023, a total of 500 ETFs were launched, with a total trading volume of $450 million to date. The highest trading volume for one ETF is $45 million. Just BlackRock's IBIT alone has a higher trading volume than all the ETFs launched in 2023.
Grayscale GBTC Trading Volume $5.1 Billion
Many have questioned whether more than half of this trading volume comes from Grayscale's GBTC. However, its net outflow in two days was only $579 million, which does not seem to match the expectation that investors would heavily sell GBTC and move to other fund issuers.
Shift from European Exchange-Traded Products to the U.S.
According to data from the BitMEX research team, people are shifting from high-fee European ETPs to low-fee U.S. ETFs. In these three days, the outflow of funds from the four major European Bitcoin ETPs amounted to $75.2 million.
Bitcoin Spot ETFs – Day 3 – UPDATE 2
There is also evidence of switching from the high fee European ETPs to the low fee US ETFs
Looks like $75.2m outflow from the largest four European Bitcoin ETPs in the period https://t.co/SijMeAtDmP pic.twitter.com/yAddWjJny2
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) January 17, 2024
Ark Sells BITO to Buy Its Own ARKB
According to Ark Invest Daily, Cathie Wood's ARK Invest bought 385,427 shares of its own Bitcoin spot ETF ARKB worth approximately $16.77 million on 1/16 and sold 757,664 shares of BITO (worth about $15.84 million). This aligns with our initial prediction: selling GBTC first, then buying BITO to pave the way for ARKB.
The end of the Grayscale era? Ark clears out all GBTC, switches to BITO
