Spot Bitcoin ETFs topped $4.5 billion in volume on the first day of trading, but one of the issuers clarified it hasn’t yet cut.
The first day of trading for a suite of new Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has seen significant activity, with BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) leading the way in total volumes. Data from Yahoo Finance, compiled by Cointelegraph, indicates that the total volume across 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs exceeded $4.5 billion on the first day of trading.
According to Yahoo Finance data, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, emerged as the top performer among the newly listed funds, handling over $1 billion in volume, accounting for 22% of the total volume for the group. The strong debut of these ETFs highlights the market’s demand for cryptocurrency investment products and the growing acceptance of such instruments in traditional finance.
On the first day of trading for several new Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETF closely followed BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in terms of trading volume, with approximately $685 million in day one trading volume.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs on first day trading
Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), recorded an impressive $2.2 billion in total volume on the debut day. Notably, Hashdex’s BTC ETF did not commence trading as expected. While the SEC approved Hashdex’s 19b-4 filing, allowing the spot ETF to be listed on U.S. stock exchanges, the Form S-1 was not made effective, and Hashdex’s “DEFI” fund is currently only trading as a futures-based ETF.
The trading volume includes both inflows and outflows, and it does not provide a complete picture of the buying versus selling activity. Analysts, including Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart from Bloomberg, speculated that the majority of GBTC trading activity on the first day was selling, as investors likely rotated out of GBTC into newer, lower-fee products like those offered by BlackRock and Fidelity.
$BITO and $GBTC are both in the Top 10 among overall ETFs in trading volume today.. $IBIT and $FBTC also making in Top 25, just to give some context on how this volume fits in w bigger picture. Just overall superb showing. Remember eth futures ETFs barely did $2m pic.twitter.com/gOzIScTyux
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) January 11, 2024
The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF also witnessed significant trading activity on its first day, surpassing $2 billion in total volume. Similar to the trend observed with other ETFs, this is theorized to be primarily comprised of selling as investors potentially shift from futures-based Bitcoin exposure to cheaper and less volatile spot-based exposure.
Timothy Peterson, an investment manager at Cane Macro, estimated that the buying activity across these ETFs implies a need to purchase approximately 47,000 Bitcoin on the spot market, equivalent to about $2.1 billion at current prices. These developments reflect the dynamic market response to the introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs and the evolving investor preferences in the cryptocurrency space.
2/ ETF size rank is directly inversely proportional to fund flows, a phenomenon known as Zipf’s Law. pic.twitter.com/pO4GGhcF5T
— Timothy Peterson, CFA CAIA (@nsquaredcrypto) January 11, 2024
Balchunas said that investors looking to understand the impact of the ETFs on underlying Bitcoin purchases will most likely have to wait until later the morning of Jan. 13 to get a better idea of spot inflows.