Traditional asset management giants are all set in the race to gain a foothold in Bitcoin exchange-traded funds after a strong first week of results. As Bernstein analyst Gautam Chughani highlighted in a note to clients on Thursday, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) was one of the first spot Bitcoin ETFs approved last week. has become a winner. Net inflows into the fund have reached $1 billion, and although trading volume has cooled down a bit after a big first day, the fund's cumulative trading volume has already exceeded $2 billion. “We are very pleased to see early strong demand for IBIT from our clients, particularly in both the end investor and advisor communities. “Our commitment to investors and our ability to deliver high-quality products to all types of investors'' said Jay Jacobs, head of thematic active equity ETFs at BlackRock, in a statement. . One Bitcoin fund that holds more assets than IBIT is Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). The fund already held about $29 billion when it converted from an over-the-counter product to an exchange-traded product. But the fund has seen net outflows of about $1 billion over the past week, according to FactSet. Outflows from GBTC are not unexpected. The fund had been trading at a discount to its net asset value for a long time before it was converted to an ETF, so some shareholders may have been waiting for that gap to narrow before converting to an ETF. The fund's costs may also be working against Grayscale, as its expense ratio of 1.5% is well above its competitors. Grayscale says its size and track record merit a premium. Despite the outflows from GBTC, Spot Bitcoin funds are still seeing net inflows of hundreds of millions, according to FactSet. It is unclear how much of the funds that left GBTC were diverted to cheaper funds. “GBTC fees are 150bps, while remaining fees are around 20bps, meaning cheaper ETFs will continue to absorb GBTC outflows.In that context, a net The influx remains impressive,” Bernstein’s Chugani said in a note. According to FactSet, IBIT is followed by Fidelity Wise Origin (FBTC), Bitwise (BITB), and Arc21Shares (ARKB) funds in terms of new fund assets.
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