Spot Bitcoin ETFs top $4.5B total volume on the first day of trading

Source: Cointelegraph

The first day of trading for a suite of new Bitcoin BTC $43,561 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has launched with a bang, with BlackRock, Grayscale and Fidelity’s ETFs coming out on top in total volumes. One issuer, however, didn’t get to start as expected.

Aggregated data from Yahoo Finance shows that the total volume across ten spot Bitcoin ETFs reached more than $4.5 billion in total volume for day one trading.

Grayscale’s ETF, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), was the top performer of the newly listed funds, handling $2.3 billion in volume — nearly 50% of the group’s total volume, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF closed up 0.48% on the day. Source: Yahoo Finance

Following close behind was BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which amassed around $1 billion in day one trading volume. Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust (FBTC) ranked third with $688 million traded in spot BTC ETF on the first day of trading.

Hashdex’s BTC ETF did not start trading on Jan. 11. While the United States Securities and Exchange Commission approved Hashdex’s 19b-4 filing, which would allow its spot ETF product to be listed on U.S. stock exchanges, the SEC did not make its Form S-1 effective, meaning that Hashdex’s “DEFI” fund is still only trading as a futures-based ETF. The company also issued a corrected statement noting the fund did not yet hold any spot Bitcoin in its portfolio.

The trading volume includes inflows and outflows and doesn’t paint a full picture of how much of the day’s trading activity was buying versus selling.

Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas theorized that the vast majority of trading activity for GBTC was selling as investors rotated out of the fund into newer, lower-fee products, such as BlackRock’s and Fidelity’s respective ETFs. His colleague James Seyffart shared the same view.

Meanwhile, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF experienced record-breaking trading activity of its own, with more than $2 billion in total volume on the day.

This is also theorized to be comprised largely of selling as investors move out from futures-based Bitcoin exposure to cheaper, less volatile spot-based exposure.

Timothy Peterson, an investment manager at Cane Macro, estimated that the buying activity across the ETFs means that approximately 47,000 Bitcoin — worth $2.1 billion at current prices — will need to be purchased on the spot market.

Balchunas said that investors looking to understand the impact of the ETFs on underlying Bitcoin purchases will most likely have to wait until later the morning of Jan. 13 to get a better idea of spot inflows.