After just two months of trading, BlackRock’s IBIT spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund crossed 200,000 BTC in assets under management on Monday. The newborn nine spot bitcoin ETFs — excluding Grayscale’s converted GBTC fund — total more than 420,000 BTC.
BlackRock’s IBIT has now amassed around 204,000 BTC in assets — worth around $14.7 billion at current prices — according to the funds’ latest disclosure. Of the newborn nine ETFs, Fidelity’s FBTC is currently in second place with over 128,000 BTC and Ark Invest 21Shares’ ARKB is third with nearly 38,000 BTC per BitMEX Research data.
Bitcoin under management. Image: K33 Research.
Last week, IBIT surpassed MicroStrategy’s 193,000 BTC holdings. MicroStrategy announced yesterday it had made a further purchase of 12,000 BTC, retaking the lead by reaching 205,000 BTC. However, IBIT is likely to exceed the business intelligence firm’s bitcoin assets again today.
In U.S. dollar terms, Bitwise’s BITB also became the fifth U.S. spot bitcoin ETF to hold more than $2 billion in assets yesterday. “We now have five U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs over $2 billion in assets with BITB joining the club,” Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart wrote on X. “Out of ~3,500 U.S. ETPs there are only 445 with over $2 billion in assets. Going a step further — only 157 have more than $10 billion. GBTC and IBIT are there. FBTC is getting close.”
In comparison, assets held by Grayscale’s higher fee GBTC fund have fallen by 37% from around 619,000 BTC to 388,000 BTC in the same period — now holding less than the newborn nine combined. While the GBTC outflows in bitcoin terms have been substantial, in U.S. dollar terms, the fund has retained the same AUM since the ETFs began trading on Jan. 11. “~$11 billion in outflows for GBTC since converting to an ETF and it currently has about the same AUM that it had when it converted ($28.6 billion vs $28 billion),” Seyffart added. “Price appreciation is a helluva drug. Bull market subsidy is in full effect here.”
GBTC’s outflows accelerated again over the past couple of weeks, coinciding with a court ruling that the now-bankrupt crypto brokerage firm Genesis can sell over $1.3 billion worth of GBTC shares, intending to repay creditors in kind. K33 Research analyst Vetle Lunde said that based on the pace of the outflows, the impact of this should be largely cleared, and GBTC outflows should subside from here.
Spot bitcoin ETF inflows and trading volume remain strong
Net inflows for the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs came in at $505.5 million on Monday despite $494.1 million in outflows from GBTC. IBIT again led daily flows yesterday, registering $562.9 million of inflows. Fidelity’s FBTC was second with $215.5 million worth of inflows, and Valkyrie’s BRRR third with $118.8 million as it plans to temporarily reduce its fee to zero, according to data from BitMEX Research.
On Friday, BlackRock’s IBIT spot bitcoin ETF total inflows crossed $10 billion for the first time, while newborn nine exceeded $20 billion.
Volume for the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs also remained robust on Monday, generating $6.91 billion in trading — the fourth-largest daily volume to date. Record daily trading volume for the ETFs currently stands at $9.93 billion, set on March 5 — when bitcoin first broke its prior all-time high of $69,000.
Monday’s trading volume was again led by BlackRock’s IBIT, registering $3.05 billion, with Grayscale’s GBTC and Fidelity’s FBTC generating $1.59 billion and $1.42 billion, respectively, according to The Block’s data dashboard.
BlackRock and Fidelity’s spot bitcoin ETFs have reached a combined market share by trading volume of over 60%, eroding Grayscale’s initial dominance, as The Block reported yesterday.
Cumulative trading volume for all spot bitcoin ETFs now stands at $113.5 billion.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $72,031 — up 7.5% over the past week, according to The Block’s price page.
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