Spot Bitcoin ETFs Achieve $4.5B Total Volume on Debut

The inaugural trading session for a suite of newly introduced Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has made a resounding debut, with BlackRock, Grayscale, and Fidelity emerging as leaders in total trading volumes. However, one issuer faced an unexpected delay in commencing operations.

According to aggregated data from Yahoo Finance, meticulously compiled by Cointelegraph, the cumulative volume across ten spot Bitcoin ETFs surpassed an impressive $4.5 billion on the first day of trading.

BlackRock’s entry into the Bitcoin ETF arena, represented by the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), stood out as the top performer among the freshly listed funds. IBIT facilitated just over $1 billion in trading volume, constituting 22% of the collective volume for the group, as reported by Yahoo Finance.

In close pursuit was Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETF, denoted as FBTC, which garnered a noteworthy $685 million in trading volume during its inaugural day.

Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF, traded under the ticker GBTC, demonstrated substantial strength by accumulating a total volume of $2.2 billion. This particular investment vehicle represents a conversion of Grayscale’s existing Bitcoin Trust.

Notably absent from the ranks of spot Bitcoin ETFs for the day was Hashdex. Despite the SEC’s approval of Hashdex’s 19b-4 filing, enabling the listing of its spot ETF product on U.S. stock exchanges, the SEC did not render its S-1 form effective. Consequently, Hashdex’s “DEFI” fund is currently limited to trading as a futures-based ETF. The company issued a corrected statement, clarifying that the fund did not hold any spot Bitcoin in its portfolio at present.

It’s crucial to emphasize that trading volume, encompassing both inflows and outflows, offers an incomplete depiction of the day’s trading dynamics, failing to distinguish between buying and selling activities.

Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas and his colleague James Seyffart propose a shared perspective, suggesting that a substantial portion of trading in Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF (GBTC) involves selling. Investors, according to their theory, are shifting away from GBTC and reallocating their assets into newer, more cost-effective alternatives such as BlackRock’s and Fidelity’s respective ETFs.

Simultaneously, the ProShares Futures Bitcoin ETF (BITO) witnessed remarkable trading activity, surpassing $2 billion in total volume for the day. Analysts posit that this surge is primarily driven by selling, reflecting a trend where investors are transitioning from futures-based Bitcoin exposure to more economical and less volatile spot-based alternatives.

Timothy Peterson, an investment manager at Cane Macro, estimated that the collective buying activity across various ETFs implies a need for approximately 47,000 Bitcoin, valued at $2.1 billion at current market prices, to be acquired in the spot market.

Balchunas emphasized that investors seeking insights into the ETFs’ impact on actual Bitcoin purchases might need to exercise patience, anticipating a clearer understanding of spot inflows by the latter part of the morning on January 13.