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Great news continues to come from BlackRock’s ETF on Bitcoin traded on Nasdaq (IBIT).
Indeed, for the past two days it has been setting its new all-time records in terms of daily trading volume.
Another intense volume day for the Nine with well over $2b traded. $IBIT broke its personal record again w/ $1.3b (for context that's more than most large cap US stocks trade). I don't know if this is a new normal or some kind of short-term algo/arb-related burst a la $HODL. pic.twitter.com/KkCkdQKe9r
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 27, 2024
Summary
Bitcoin news: Trading volumes on Nasdaq for BlackRock’s ETF (IBIT)
Although all Bitcoin ETFs are experiencing very high trading volumes these days, IBIT’s are truly record-breaking.
On Monday, they had exceeded for the first time in its short history 1.3 billion dollars, and yesterday they did even better, reaching almost 1.37 billion.
The previous record was set on the same day of the launch on the markets, namely Thursday, January 11, 2024, when they exceeded one billion dollars.
Since then, only on February 12th this threshold had been exceeded again, until Monday.
It is worth noting that February 12th was the day when the price of Bitcoin exceeded $50,000 for the first time since the end of 2021, while Monday and Tuesday were the days when it went from $50,000 to $57,000, surpassing $55,000 for the first time since the end of 2021.
It should be remembered that November 2021 was the month in which the price of Bitcoin reached its all-time high value of over $69,000.
Regarding the BlackRock ETF, another interesting thing is that for the first time ever since it was launched on the markets, it has recorded two consecutive days with a daily trading volume exceeding one billion dollars.
The other ETFs
Actually, yesterday and the day before yesterday the trading volumes on other BTC ETFs were also high, but the overall record from this point of view was set on Monday, while yesterday the volumes were in line with those of January 11th.
It is important to underline that more than half of the 2 billion dollars of total daily trading volume is made up of the 1.3 billion dollars of IBIT, which now literally dominates this ranking.
In second place is FBTC, Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF, which has not yet managed to surpass those $685 million from January 11th.
In third place instead, ARKB by Ark Invest has risen, with over 200 million dollars.
A separate discussion, however, is that of GBTC, namely the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust which has been around for more than ten years, but only became an ETF on January 11th.
Indeed, on the day of its launch alone, it recorded more trading volumes than all other Bitcoin ETFs combined, reaching nearly $2.3 billion. The following day it dropped to $1.8 billion, but it is since the end of January that its daily trading volumes have plummeted.
For example, on February 1st they had even dropped below 300 million dollars, which is seven times less than the launch day. On Monday they did not exceed 900 million, and yesterday they stopped at 800.
Crypto news: The decline of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and the rise of the BlackRock Bitcoin spot ETF
The reason for this decline is quickly explained: many former holders of GBTC shares are selling them because the shares of the new ETFs are more competitive, especially thanks to lower commission costs.
On January 10, before becoming an ETF, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust still held almost 620,000 BTC, while now it has dropped to 444,000. This decline is still ongoing, and sooner or later it will be surpassed in this sense by other ETFs.
As of today, GBTC still holds more Bitcoin than all the other ETFs in the world combined, but this record is about to end. In fact, the two main alternative ETFs, IBIT and FBTC, alone hold about 230,000 BTC, which is more than half of GBTC, and at this rate in a month or so they should be able to surpass it.
It is therefore not surprising that on January 11th the daily trading volume of GBTC exceeded the sum of all other Bitcoin ETFs combined, while yesterday IBIT alone recorded a trading volume one and a half times higher than that of GBTC.
The rise of the new ETFs
Although temporarily GBTC still dominates the Bitcoin ETF market, albeit only in terms of AUM and not volumes, two of the new ETFs seem destined to replace Grayscale in the near future.
The first, as already highlighted, is BlackRock’s IBIT, which is currently the largest in terms of trading volume and the second largest in terms of AUM with more than 130,000 BTC corresponding to over 7 billion dollars.
The second is FBTC by Fidelity, which has come to own almost one hundred thousand Bitcoins, corresponding to an AUM of over five and a half billion dollars.
Together, Messi not only surpass half of Grayscale’s BTC, but above all yesterday they touched nearly two billion dollars in trading volumes, more than double the 800 million of GBTC.
So in reality, Grayscale’s ETF is already losing its primacy, which until January 10 seemed unattainable, so much so that in terms of volumes it has already largely lost it for several days.
As for the AUM, it seems to be only a matter of time, and all this is perfectly justified by its poor competitiveness in the markets compared to IBIT, FBTC, but also compared to others.
Note that even ARKB from Ark is on the rise, as it has surpassed the historical BTCC from Purpose, placing itself in fourth position overall after GBTC, IBIT, and FBTC.
2024 is effectively a year of real and significant change for the Bitcoin market.