Spot bitcoin ETF cumulative trading volume crosses $100 billion

Quick Take

  • Cumulative trading volume for spot Bitcoin ETFs surpassed $100 billion after launching less than two months ago.
  • Volumes have surged in the last two week’s including this Monday when the combined buying and selling activity for spot bitcoin ETFs nearly hit $10 billion.

After their January debut, the newly launched U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs kicked off to a roaring start.

On Friday, the crypto-based financial instruments achieved another major milestone when they passed $100 billion in cumulative trading volume, according to Yahoo Finance data compiled by The Block. While it took the new products more than a month to clear $50 billion in cumulative trading volume, they completed the second half of the milestone in roughly two weeks as activity accelerated across the board.

The increase in buying and selling has simultaneously drove the price of bitcoin to new heights. As the spot bitcoin ETFs steadily grow in size they have been gobbling up bitcoin faster than it can be mined. Bitcoin BTC +1.33% 's price recently eclipsed its previous all-time high of $69,000 as demand for the most popular cryptocurrency by market cap has soared.

 

Spot bitcoin ETFs passing the $100-billion mark comes after Monday's exceptional result when the products' daily trading volume nearly hit $10 billion. Last week was also record-setting as cumulative trading volumes for the spot bitcoin ETFs totaled $22.3 billion, according to The Block’s data dashboard.

Overall the three most popular products, in terms of volume, have been those issued by BlackRock, Fidelity and Grayscale. On Tuesday, BlackRock’s fund hit a new record for daily inflows of $788.3 million.

Better than gold

Earlier this week, Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, tried to put recent events into perspective. “Wild stat,” he posted to X. “Total flows into nine new spot bitcoin ETFs over the past two months exceeds total flows into all physical gold ETFs over the past five years.”

What many call the nine “new” spot bitcoin ETFs excludes Grayscale’s GBTC fund, a conversion of its flagship fund which already had tens of billions of dollars under management when it started trading alongside the other funds in January. Grayscale’s fund, which carries a higher fee than key rivals, has shed billions of dollars since launching, contributing in large part, to the total trading volume.

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While algorithmic trading may be also driving some of the total volume registered, Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas said last week that he sees organic demand is the primary driver. He also said that although the spot bitcoin ETFs may not be able to sustain their current volume levels, over time, high volume tends to lead to higher asset flows.

As the ETFs have kept up their pace of smashing daily and weekly volume records, total assets under management have also climbed. While Grayscale's fund has lost billions of dollars in assets under management, it still leads all other funds with more than $27 billion in net assets.

But BlackRock and Fidelity's products have been gaining ground. BlackRock’s IBIT fund is currently closest to catching Grayscale with currently more than $12 billion under management. Fidelity’s FBTC product has also made a strong showing, so far taking in more than $6 billion.

Other recently launched spot bitcoin ETFs include those offered by Bitwise, Ark 21Shares, Invesco, VanEck, Valkyrie, Franklin Templeton, and WisdomTree.

 

 


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About Author

RT Watson is a senior reporter at The Block who covers a wide array of topics including U.S.-based companies, blockchain gaming and NFTs. Formerly covered entertainment at The Wall Street Journal, where he wrote about Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. and the creator economy while focusing primarily on technological disruption across media. Previous to that he covered corporate, economic and political news in Brazil while at Bloomberg. RT has interviewed a diverse cast of characters including CEOs, media moguls, top influencers, politicians, blue-collar workers, drug traffickers and convicted criminals. Holds a master's degree in Digital Sociology.

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