BlackRock's ETF Becomes Largest Bitcoin Fund in World; Overtakes Grayscale On January 11, the total volume was over USD 4.6 billion, with GBTC comprising about half of it at USD 2.33 billion. IBIT ranked second with USD 1.03 billion, while FBTC stood third with USD 712 million
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After almost five months since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved bitcoin exchange-traded funds, BlackRock with its iShares Bitcoin Trust has emerged as the largest bitcoin fund in the world. Currently, it values its total assets at USD 19.68 billion as of Tuesday, surpassing that of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's USD 19.65 billion fund.
The third largest in the market is Fidelity Investments's USD 11.1 billion ETF. This was the biggest launch in ETF history.
BlackRock's shift as the market leader was first reported by Bloomberg.
According to data from Farside Investors, Grayscale's GBTC experienced an outflow of USD 16.09 million, while BlackRock's IBIT recorded a single-day inflow of USD 91.95 million with Fidelity's FBTC seeing an inflow of USD 74.57 million on May 22.
Slump for Grayscale
On January 11, the total volume was over USD 4.6 billion, with GBTC comprising about half of it at USD 2.33 billion. IBIT ranked second with USD 1.03 billion, while FBTC stood third with USD 712 million. According to data released by HODL15Capital, Grayscale held 620,000 BTC at the time of the conversion on January 10, which was more than three per cent of the circulating supply.
When the nine new ETFs launched in January, Grayscale's fund held about USD 29 billion in assets.
Also read: Demystifying Spot Bitcoin ETFs
However, it was only in early May that Grayscale was able to report the first day of net positive inflows for its GBTC. So, what went against the investment management company?
GBTC had a much higher fee of 1.5 per cent as compared to 0.2 per cent provided by its peers. The company stood undeterred even after investors pulled 330,000+ BTC. According to fund data complied by CoinDesk, its BTC holding dropped to around 290,000 bitcoins from more than 600,000 bitcoins.
Notably, since January, investors have poured in USD 16.5 billion to IBIT and have withdrawn USD 17 billion from GBTC.
BlackRock's strong distribution network among independent financial advisors and wealth managers proved to work in its favor.
Notably, Grayscale withdrew its Ethereum futures ETF application weeks before the securities regulator was forced to decide on at least one spot Ether ETF application.
Also read: US SEC Approves Bitcoin ETFs for Daily Trading; Bitcoin Breaks USD 45,000 mark
