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BlackRock’s IBIT Sees First Outflows as Crypto Fervor Eases
BlackRock’s IBIT Sees First Outflows as Crypto Fervor Eases
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs suffered their seventh straight day of outflows on Thursday, as risk-averse investors continued to shy away from digital assets.
According to UK-based Farside Investors, the 11 fledgling funds generated outflows of about $35 million yesterday and have totaled outflows of more than $1 billion since last Wednesday.
The outflows represent a sharp turnaround for the products which, since the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 10 funds on Jan. 10, have been among the most successful ETF launches in the past three decades, generating more than 11 billions of dollars in inflows. They now hold nearly $55 billion in assets.
The largest of these, that of BlackRock Inc iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), it has accumulated more than $16.5 billion in assets and $15.5 billion in inflows. IBIT, the fastest growing ETF to generate $10 billion in assets, suffered its first outflows on Wednesday and had zero net flows on Thursday.
Greyscale Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), which remains the largest Bitcoin spot fund with $17.5 billion in assets, reported outflows of $55 million on Thursday. It has suffered outflows of more than $17.1 billion since it began trading on Jan. 11 along with IBIT and nine other products.
GBTC continued outflows
However, GBTC differs from its competitors in this space because it is a conversion from a trust and carries the highest fee, by far 1.5%.
The outflows combined with a drop in the price of bitcoin. According to cryptocurrency data provider CoinMarketCap, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization fell 2.8% over the past week.
However, not all signs were pointing to the downside as the first spot cryptocurrency ETFs traded on the Hong Kong exchange launched and generated nearly $300 million in inflows on their first day.
On Thursday, BNP Paribas bought more than $41,000 in IBIT during the first quarter, according to an SEC filing.
In her Crypto Is Macro Now newsletter, market analyst Noelle Acheson wrote: “I still think we will see institutional investors tiptoe into the cryptocurrency market, through ETFs and/or derivatives, with some companies venturing to hold BTC on their balance sheets for now it will be a slow flow, which could keep prices sideways a little longer.”
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