Bitcoin (BTC) traded between $42,580 and $43,422 on Feb. 2 as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust’s (GBTC) grapplehold over spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) selling took a pause.
BlackRock and ProShares ETFs daily volume surpasses GBTC volume
Grayscale’s converted GBTC ETF has dominated the spot Bitcoin ETF market in terms of daily volumes since the products began trading on Jan. 11.
This dominance came to an end on Feb. 1 when BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) became the first of the nine ETFs to surpass GBTC’s trading volume.
Data shared by Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart on Feb. 1 showed IBIT leading with $301 million in volume, while additional data showed that BITO had ended the day with $298 million trades placed. GBTC came in third with $292 million in trades.
Seyffart said:
“BlackRock’s IBIT is the first ETF to trade more than Grayscale’s GBTC in a single day.”
Still some after hours trading left but looks like BlackRock's $IBIT is the first ETF to trade more than Grayscale's $GBTC in a single day.
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) February 1, 2024
Total trading today was kind of a dud though at $924 million -- first day below $1 billion in dollar volume for the group since launch. https://t.co/IeIF2COm4F pic.twitter.com/ZtADLBQP63
“Total trading today was kind of a dud though at $924 million — the first day below $1 billion in dollar volume for the group since launch,” Seyffart added.
This was the first time the total daily ETF trades were below $1 billion, with the cumulative trading volume now at $28.30 billion.
At the time of writing on Feb. 2, GBTC was back on top of the table with $240.68 million in trading volume.
GBTC selling continues to taper off
GBTC’s dominance of spot Bitcoin ETFs was due to heavy outflows from the trust since the first day of trading. This has been largely attributed to the ability of investors to redeem their investment once the product was converted to a spot ETF, something they were unable to do before.
In addition, Grayscale’s high fees have seen it shed well over $5.8 billion worth of assets since Jan. 11, according to BitMEX Research.
Related: Spot Bitcoin ETFs add 151K BTC amidst GBTC dump in January
The higher-fee GBTC product has now shed over $5.8 billion worth of assets in the period, compared to combined inflows of $7.2 billion for the nine newborn ETFs, according to BitMEX Research.
Bitcoin ETF Flow - Day 15
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) February 2, 2024
All data out. Net flow of +$38.5m for day 15. Relatively quiet day it seems pic.twitter.com/L478MuK9v1
This dominance has, however, begun to decline over the last few days. Earlier, GBTC was sending an average of $700 million in BTC to the Coinbase crypto exchange, and BitMEX Research data above shows that this has totaled less than $300 million since Jan. 26.
In terms of Bitcoin, 24,050 BTC outflowed from GBTC, reducing to 4,461 BTC on Jan. 30 and 4,433 on Feb. 2.
According to JPMorgan analysts, GBTC outflows were largely due to profit-taking and are “behind us,” which could take the pressure off BTC’s price.
It is also important to note that as GBTC selling peaked, the FTX crypto exchange sold its entire GBTC shareholding — 22 million GBTC shares — valued at approximately $1 billion.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.