Bitcoin ETFs Surpass $3 Billion Net Flows, Shattering Gold ETF Launch

Bitcoin spot ETFs in the United States have collectively breached $3 billion in net flows roughly one month after birth, blasting past the performance of gold ETFs when they were launched 20 years ago. This milestone comes even inclusive of Grayscale’s fund, which has seen only outflows as long-term investors cash out—many likely moving to competitive offerings.

Excluding Grayscale, inflows are closing in on $10 billion, according to data from BitMEX Research. As of late Monday, inflows across those other Bitcoin spot ETFs tallied more than $9.6 billion worth.

In a Tuesday Twitter post, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said it took the GLD ETF “nearly two years” to absorb the same capital as Bitcoin ETFs have in the past 32 days.

After going live on November 18, 2004, SPDR Gold Shares—which trades on the NYSE under the GLD ticker—surpassed $1 billion in assets within three days of trading. Volumes slid dramatically after that however, and total known ETF holdings of gold flattened just short of ten million ounces for about one year, Bloomberg data shows.

The NET cumulative flows for the 10 bitcoin ETFs (incl GBTC) has doubled in past 3 days to over $3b (for context it took $GLD nearly 2yrs to get to this point) after another half a billion yesterday. The Nine alone are nearing $10b in flows. Chart via ⁦@BitMEXResearch⁩ pic.twitter.com/jTht9wDqVf

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 13, 2024

Still, GLD is often credited for helping kick-start a multi-year bull market for gold, which took its price per ounce from $400 at launch to $1,800 by 2011 (the current spot price is around $2,000 today). Likewise, Bitcoin’s price has already reached a new two-year high above $50,000 since getting its own ETFs and witnessing an even larger tsunami of inflows.

Notably, about half of those net inflows have arrived within the past three days alone, at a rate of roughly $450 million per day. Monday saw $493 million worth of flows, marking the third-strongest inflow day since launch.

Much of the recent spike is thanks to slowing outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). Still the world’s largest Bitcoin fund, many investors started to dump their GBTC shares last month to close a long-term arbitrage trade following Grayscale’s conversion into an ETF.

Bitcoin ETF Flow – 12th Feb

Strong day on 12th Feb, with +$493.3m flow over all products pic.twitter.com/gBhlTO695X

— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) February 13, 2024

Others likely sold their shares simply to rotate into one of the newer, significantly cheaper ETFs from BlackRock, Fidelity, and others. Either way, those newer funds show no signs of slowing down, now nearing $10 billion in net flows when discounting Grayscale, per BitMEX Research.

Bitcoin ETFs now hold over $30 billion in assets (close to 690,000 BTC), making it the second largest ETF commodity in the country. Gold remains king on that front, boasting $90 billion in assets, including $54 billion within GLD alone, according to VettaFi.

Balchunas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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