Bitcoin ETF snapshot: Record volumes lead to second-best weekly inflows

As bitcoin ETF trading volumes ascended to new levels last week, inflows did the same — then reversed course.

Net inflows into the segment of 10 US funds turned negative on Friday as BlackRock’s fast-growing ETF was unable to fully offset the assets bleeding out of Grayscale Investments’ offering.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) tallied inflows of about $203 million on Friday, according to BitMEX Research data.

Three other such funds — the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) and the Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) — contributed combined net inflows of roughly $150 million.

But net outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF Trust (GBTC) — a fund priced significantly higher than competitors at 1.5% — amounted to $492 million on Friday, pushing the segment’s flows negative for the day.

Net outflows were $140 million Friday, marking just the eighth day of negative flows for the 10 funds in 35 trading days. The BitMEX Research data excluded flows from WisdomTree’s bitcoin fund — an ETF that has failed to see material flows following its first week of trading.

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Still, the Friday outflows came during a week in which the fund category saw its highest single day of net inflows — amounting to $673 million on Feb. 28.

The category enjoyed about $1.7 billion of net inflows last week — second only to the week spanning Feb. 12 to Feb. 16, during which that number eclipsed $2.2 billion.

Industry watchers have closely tracked net flows into the US bitcoin products to get a sense of BTC demand from investors who previously did not have easy access to the asset. The Securities and Exchange Commission changed its years-long stance by allowing such products to come to market in January.

Net inflows for the 10 offerings stands at nearly $7.4 billion to date despite GBTC weighing down that total with net outflows of about $8.9 billion.

Heightened trading volumes, the new normal?

In terms of bitcoin ETF trading volumes, last week was by far a record.

The trading volumes total for the 10 offerings was roughly $22 billion, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas said in a Friday X post.

Trade volumes hit an all-time high of more than $7.6 billion on Feb. 28, as Thursday and Friday reflected the second- and third-best totals, respectively.

IBIT’s trading volumes exceeded $1 billion during all five days last week, peaking at about $3.3 billion on Wednesday.

“Will this subside or is [the] new normal here?” Balchunas said. “We’ll know next [week].”

Beyond just the US bitcoin funds, crypto investment products as a whole reached more than $30 billion last week, according to CoinShares data.

This was, at times, the equivalent of half of global bitcoin daily trading volumes on trusted exchanges, CoinShares research head James Butterfill wrote in a Monday blog post.

Ethereum-focused products saw about $85 million of net inflows last week — its largest weekly total since July 2022.

Bitcoin’s price hovered around $65,000 at 7:30 a.m. ET Monday — up 27% from a week ago. ETH was at about $3,500, a nearly 15% rise over the past seven days.

Crypto products’ assets under management stood at nearly $83 billion, Butterfill noted — just short of the $86 billion high set in November 2021.

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