Bitcoin ETFs Are Starting to Compete With S&P 500, Says Michael Saylor

The world’s most famous Bitcoin billionaire says the new Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock and Fidelity have proven more successful than even he had imagined.

“We thought that maybe Bitcoin was a competitor to gold, but it has actually run up the leaderboard, and now it’s starting to nip at the heels of the S&P 500 Index ETFs,” MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor said during an interview at the Madeira Bitcoin conference.

Saylor said gold ETFs, which remain the largest commodity ETFs in the United States, will be surpassed by their Bitcoin counterparts in “not too long a time.”

Since launching less than two months ago, Bitcoin ETFs have collectively absorbed $8.5 billion in net inflows, according to BitMEX Research—even when offset by massive outflows from the converted Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) during that time.

The next largest funds, including the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity Wise Bitcoin Origin Trust (FBTC), both experienced the largest inflows of any ETF in history within their first 30 days of launch.

Such funds are now consistently placing within the top 20 most actively traded ETFs each day. Collectively, the Bitcoin ETFs traded with over $6 billion in volume on Tuesday—even more than Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).

If they keep up this pace and add $10b a month (which is pretty insane but very poss if btc price complies) they will pass gold ETFs this summer

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) March 5, 2024

Saylor characterized ETFs are a “universal API” for investors to easily trade in and out of different funds, through which they can now access BTC. An Application Programming Interface (API) is a standardized conduit to data that streamlines interactions between computer systems.

“That’s also the global protocol for trading volatility or for issuing credit,” he explained.

Before ETFs, taking out a loan against one’s Bitcoin would be slow and have a far higher interest rate. Now, one could potentially post shares of an ETF as a down payment on a mortgage through their trusted broker-dealer, like J.P. Morgan or Merrill Lynch.

“These ETFs opened up an entire financial world of awareness, opportunity, and functionality to the 99% of mainstream investors,” Saylor continued. “You really can’t underestimate just how profoundly important that is to the entire network.”

Saylor’s company MicroStrategy is the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, currently holding 193,000 BTC on its balance sheet. Overall, the firm is up over 100% on its investment, and still plans to buy more BTC using funds from an upcoming $700 million convertible note sale.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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