Market
US Bitcoin ETFs Surge as BlackRock’s IBIT Sees $3.36B in Trades
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) saw trading volume reach $3.36 billion on Tuesday, a six-month high amid heightened activity across all Bitcoin ETFs.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading with a bullish bias, holding well above the $72,000 threshold. Its March 14 all-time high of $73,777 is now within striking distance.
BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF Hits Six Month High At $3.36 Billion
The IBIT spot Bitcoin ETF recorded $642.9 million inflows on Tuesday, more than double the positive flows recorded on Monday. Similarly, the value traded hit $3.36 billion, as shown by data on SoSoValue. This sentiment was shared across all US Spot Bitcoin ETFs, which recorded elevated trading.
Read more: What Is a Bitcoin ETF?
ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted the rise is surprising given Bitcoin’s 4% gain. The surprise came as ETF volumes traditionally surge in market downturns, with this unorthodox turnout hinting at possible FOMO (fear of missing out) interest in Bitcoin. Against this backdrop, the ETF expert anticipates more inflows this week as Bitcoin continues to show strength.
“Given the surge in price the past few days, my guess is this is the latter, which means looking for (more) big inflows this week…. If this is a FOMO Frenzy we’ll see it show up in the flows next few nights,” Balchunas noted.
Indeed, with all major US Bitcoin ETFs seeing elevated trading, upcoming reports could confirm significant inflows if the trend continues. Meanwhile, US spot Bitcoin ETFs are projected to reach one million BTC held by next week, closing in on Satoshi Nakamoto’s estimated holdings of up to 1.1 million by mid-December.
BlackRock’s dominance in the Bitcoin space is unsurprising, given the firm’s pivot to cryptocurrency. Alongside MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, BlackRock remains one of Bitcoin’s strongest advocates. During the Q3 earnings call, CEO Larry Fink revealed that IBIT reached a $23 billion market in just nine months.
Recently, Fink also said Bitcoin is an independent asset as the BlackRock executive progressively fastens his belief in the pioneer crypto despite his previous skepticism. Taken together, therefore, the latest milestone coincides with BlackRock’s ongoing investments, recently purchasing over $680 million in Bitcoin. This is alongside a deeper involvement in Bitcoin-linked firms like MicroStrategy.
The general sentiment is that external factors, such as a Bitcoin price rally or a potential Donald Trump election victory, could accelerate inflows. CoinShares researchers echoed this view, attributing the rising interest to US politics rather than monetary policy. This is especially true among traditional investors, who actively engage with spot ETFs for the first time.
Read more: Who Owns the Most Bitcoin in 2024?
Nevertheless, as spot Bitcoin ETFs draw large financial institutions to the Bitcoin market, concerns arise that they increasingly contradict the principles behind Bitcoin’s establishment. Specifically, institutional control in the crypto space would erode this original ethos, shifting power back to the very entities Bitcoin aimed to bypass.
“Does this not defeat the whole purpose of “decentralization”? BlackRock will be the biggest hodler, it doesn’t get much more centralized than that,” one X user noted.
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