BlackRock and Fidelity Bitcoin ETFs reach top 10 in January flows

Source: Cointelegraph

BlackRock and Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have ranked among ETFs with the largest January flows, totaling around $4.8 billion.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) had an estimated $2.6 billion in net flows, reaching eighth place, while the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) landed 10th place with $2.2 billion in net flows, according to a Feb. 3 report from Morningstar research analyst Lan Anh Tran using data approximated from the issuer’s websites. 

The United States is home to over 3,100 ETFs as of Dec. 31, 2023, according to data from YCharts.

The data also showed the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) had the second highest outflows among ETFs in January, with $5.7 billion estimated to have net exited the fund over the month.

“Never thought I’d see the day,” the president of investment advisory firm ETF Store, Nate Geraci, wrote in an X post sharing the data.

In a separate X post, Geraci said BlackRock and Fidelity’s funds are in a “clear two-horse race” among the nine new Bitcoin BTC $43,363 funds.

He added the joint ETF from ARK Invest and 21 Shares, along with Bitwise’s — both with assets under management shy of $650 million — were developing as a “strong middle class” and predicted they would hit $1 billion in assets in the “not too distant future.”

Morningstar’s report comes amid U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs notching six straight days of net positive inflows totaling nearly $715 million, most of which was carried by BlackRock and Fidelity’s funds, according to data posted to X on Feb. 3 by BitMEX Research.

The trading days from Jan. 26 to Feb. 2 saw flows into the nine new spot Bitcoin funds surpass the lingering outflows from GBTC during the week, with the ETF seeing its second-lowest outflow day on Feb. 2 at $144.6 million.

The six-day run of inflows came after a four-day spree of outflows between Jan. 22 and 25 when GBTC outflows peaked, and $431.8 million net exited the 10 ETFs in total.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote in a Feb. 3 X post that it was “really something to see” the nine ETFs bar the GBTC “comeback from that dip last week.”

“Typically there’s [a] slow decline after [a] big hyped launch,” and the net inflows to the funds on their third week of trading “shows these ETFs have legs,” he added.