The spot Bitcoin ETF race is getting more intense by the day and BlackRock’s IBTC is on the way to overtake Grayscale’s GBTC in terms of its trading volume.
Grayscale Still Recording Outflows
At the end of trading day 13, the spot Bitcoin ETF landscape registered up to $247 million in trading volume. Of the trading volume, Grayscale spot Bitcoin ETF had a major share of about $221 million. BlackRock’s IBTC was said to have traded as much as GBTC. Precisely, Grayscale traded $397.2 million on January 30 while BlackRock traded $385.8 million.
IBTC has seen sizable inflows since the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) greenlighted its ETF amongst others. According to data presented by BitMEX Research, BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, and Bitwise recorded almost $3 billion in inflows by the fourth trading day. This trading volume placed the trio at the top of the list while giving Grayscale no place considering the GBTC product is not new to the market.
For a spot ETF that was already causing a frenzy before it was officially launched (pre-market), the move of IBTC to close in on Grayscale’s GBTC is not surprising. The majority of Grayscale’s trading volume are outflows. Notably, on the first trading day, GBTC dominated the market but later began to record huge outflows.
Brewing Spot Bitcoin ETF Marketing War
Recently, BlackRock and Fidelity began to gain more traction further threatening the dominance of Grayscale.
In terms of trading volume and investors interest, the spot Bitcoin ETFs of both asset management firms began to outperform that of Grayscale. This competition amongst spot Bitcoin ETF issuers is expected and a majority of them are beginning to explore several tactics to establish their position in the ecosystem.
Invesco and Galaxy Investment Management slashed their spot BTC ETF sponsor fee by 14 BP. This moves the fee for BTCO from 39 BPS to 25 BPS, ranking the Bitcoin ETF alongside FBTC, BRRR and IBTC.
Grayscale remains proud of its 1.5% fee, claiming that ETF issuers with lower fees are only out to entice investors.
Amongst other events happening around spot Bitcoin ETFs, issuers can now run ads for the offering on Google. This comes after Google revised its advertising policy further leveling the playing field in the ETF marketing war.