Spot Bitcoin ETFs Record $4.5 Billion Volume on Day 1
First day of trading for spot Bitcoin ETFs was memorable as trading volume reached $4.5 billion from 700,000 trades. However, net flow is relatively low.
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10 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds started trading on Thursday and generated $1.6 billion in trading volume within minutes of launch. Despite the massive trading volume on the first day, inflows were relatively low, according to the data available.
Grayscale GBTC generated most of the trading volume on Day 1, with several retail investors withdrawing their funds from the newly converted ETF.
$4.5 Billion in Trading Volume
Spot Bitcoin ETFs started their first trading with a bang as trading volume reached $4.5 billion. Grayscale GBTC saw the most trading volume, with $2.2 billion. But others also had relatively good volumes. BlackRock IBIT recorded over $1 billion in trading volume, Fidelity FBTC had $682 million, Ark Invest ARKB posted $278 million, and Bitwise BITB recorded $123 million.
Other ETFs had a relatively low volume on the open day. Invesco Galaxy BTCO posted only $45 million, while Franklin EZBC had $65 million. The volume for VanEck HODL ETF was $25 million. Valkyrie BRRR and WisdomTree BTCW had the lowest volume at $9 million and $6 million, respectively.
All the volume came from a total of 700,000 individual trades. According to Bloomberg ETF expert Eric Balchunas, this is twice the number of trades for Invesco QQQ. However, the high number of trades is mostly due to the number of retail traders, which was significantly higher than institutional traders.
Meanwhile, ProShares Bitcoin Futures ETF BITO had its highest trading volume in one day at $2 billion. Experts believe that is mostly from selling as investors migrate to spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Minor Inflows, Major Outflows
Despite the massive volume, net flow into the ETFs accounted for less than 20% of the volume, according to available data. Bitmex Research reported that the net positive flow for the first day is $630 million. This is only for seven ETFs, as data is unavailable for the rest, including GBTC.
Bitwise is leading with $240 million, followed by Fidelity with $227 million, while BlackRock IBIT had 111.7 million. VanEck also posted $10.6 million, and Franklin had $50.1 million. The net flow for WisdomTree ETF is just $1 million. However, full data on net flow is not available at press time.
There is also no data yet on GBTC, but many expect the Grayscale ETF to have a negative flow. Balchunas speculated that most GBTC trading volume would be withdrawals as investors sell their shares in the fund to buy newer ETFs with lower fees. Grayscale had set its fee at 1.5% compared to other issuers, with fees as low as 0.12%.
No Listing For Hashdex
One prospective issuer, Hashdex, did not start trading with others despite getting approval to list its spot Bitcoin ETF. This is due to the SEC not approving its Form S-1. For now, its DEFI product is only a futures-based ETF.
