BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund has continued to gather millions from investors since last Monday, despite a sharp fall in positive Bitcoin commentary.
The BlackRock-issued iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) saw another $107 million in inflows on July 18 — marking the ninth straight day of inflows, according to Thomas Fahrer, co-founder of crypto data platform Apollo.
Seven of those nine days saw flows over $100 million, a feat rarely achieved in the ETF industry.
However, crypto traders aren’t showing as much optimism. The amount of positive Bitcoin (BTC) commentary on social media has slumped compared to four months ago, while traders are increasingly taking up short positions on the asset, according to blockchain market intelligence firm Santiment.
“Positive commentary toward Bitcoin has plummeted despite the mid-sized crypto market bounce this week. Many traders, particularly on @binance, are opening shorts with the expectation of BTC dropping again.”
The amount of positive Bitcoin comments made on social media is about a third of what it was four months ago, Santiment’s chart shows.
Santiment typically measures social sentiment from social networks such Reddit, X, 4chan and BitcoinTalk.
Interestingly, Santiment revealed a surge in Bitcoin “buy the dip” mentions on these platforms at the start of the month when Bitcoin started falling toward its near-five-month low of $53,600 on July 5.
Related: Ethereum will outperform Bitcoin after ETF launch — K33 Research
Despite the fall in positive Bitcoin mentions, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index currently estimates market sentiment is in the “Greed” zone with a score of 60 out of 100.
The current score is a strong rebound from the “Extreme Fear” zone reached on July 12 with a score of 25 out of 100 — the lowest it had been since January 2023.
Bitcoin is currently priced at $63,540, down 1.5% over the last 24 hours but up 11.5% over the last fortnight.
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