Spot Bitcoin ETF Inflows Top $1.3B As Sector’s AUM Beats Out Silver

The freshly-launched cohort of Bitcoin ETFs have surpassed $1B worth of inflows in their first four days of trading, despite persistent heavy outflows from Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust ETF.

According to data tweeted by BitMEX on Jan. 18, spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $1.29B worth of investment over four days. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust is the top performing fund so far with an inflow of more than $1.08B, followed by the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF with $884M, and the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF with $375M.

However, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF continues to suffer heavy outflows, with a daily negative flow of $483M bringing its total outflows to $1.6B.

The sizable inflows have helped to catapult the spot Bitcoin ETF sector to boast assets under management (AUM) totalling $27.7B. Data from VettaFi, Bitcoin funds are the second largest class of commodity ETFs, beating out silver’s $11.3B and trailing gold’s $94.8B.

However, the milestone is largely the result of the enormous BTC stash controlled by Grayscale prior to the conversion of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an ETF. Grayscale currently accounts for 89% of the combined spot Bitcoin ETF AUM with holdings of more than 581,000 BTC, according to data from CoinGlass.

Data compiled by James Seffart, a Bloomberg analyst, estimated that futures and spot Bitcoin ETFs represent $36.9B in AUM combined.

Bitcoin ETF volume remains high

Spot Bitcoin ETFs also hosted record trade volume on their fourth day of operations. The 10 funds hosted close to $2.2B worth of trades, according to data compiled by Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg.

Balchunas noted that the nine funds excluding Grayscale posted a 34% daily jump in volume on their fifth day, with the sector driving $2.1B worth of activity in total. “Normally with a hyped up launch you see volume steadily decrease each day post-launch, rare to see it reverse back up,” Balchunas tweeted. “Good sign IMO.”

In other Bitcoin ETF news, Direxion filed with the ETF to launch five futures ETFs offering leveraged exposure to Bitcoin or short Bitcoin. The firm joins Rex Shares and ProShares in awaiting a verdict on pending applications for leveraged Bitcoin ETFs.

On the same day, Roundhill launched a novel Bitcoin ETF providing exposure to a covered call strategy via options contracts. The ETF uses futures contracts and seeks to generate yield for investors using options to enter into a covered call position.