As an analyst with a background in finance and experience in tracking the cryptocurrency market, I find this trend towards increasing institutional investment in Bitcoin through ETFs to be a significant development. BlackRock’s rapid growth in Bitcoin holdings within just 96 trading days of its debut is particularly noteworthy, especially given the substantial gap it had to close with Grayscale’s GBTC. This competition between major players in the industry has led to increased accessibility for investors and ultimately driven up Bitcoin’s value to new heights.


On May 28th, BlackRock officially took the lead from Grayscale, managing a total of 288,671 Bitcoins in its Bitcoin ETF, making it the largest such fund in existence.

In just 96 trading days, BlackRock’s IBIT managed to significantly bridge the gap with Grayscale’s GBTC, boasting an impressive $19.79 billion in assets under management (AUM). Conversely, GBTC experienced a decline of approximately $18 billion during the same timeframe, leaving it with a slightly lower AUM of $19.75 billion.

On January 11, nine new Bitcoin ETFs, including those from BlackRock and Fidelity, were introduced.

Coinciding with these debuts, the long-established Grayscale fund also transitioned into an ETF.

The cryptocurrency industry experienced a pivotal moment with this event, enhancing Bitcoin’s availability to investors and subsequently pushing its price to an unprecedented peak of approximately $74,000 around March.

Based on SoSoValue’s most recent figures, Bitcoin ETFs saw a net investment of 632 Bitcoins, equivalent to approximately $43.3 million, on the previous day. This marks the eleventh straight day with inflows.

In simple terms, BlackRock headed the investments with a total of $102 million. Fidelity experienced expansion as well, contributing an additional $34 million. Ark Invest and 21 Shares’ ARKB fund added approximately $4 million.

As a crypto investor, I’d interpret that bit by bit, Bitwise’s BITWise Bitcoin Fund (BITB) experienced an inflow of $3 million by trailing its closing behind on May 28th. Similarly, Invesco and Galaxy Digital’s Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTCO) recorded the same amount of inflows during that period.

Valkyrie Digital Assets’ Buy-and-Redeem-at-Risk (BRRR) strategy attracted only $1 million in investments during the day, whereas VanEck’s HODL and Franklin Templeton’s EZBC funds did not receive any inflows. (Note: “settled for” can be paraphrased as “attracted”, “received” or “had”)

As a researcher studying the trends in asset management, I’ve observed that while Bitwise Asset Management saw an inflow of assets, resulting in a growth in its assets under management (AUM), Grayscale experienced a net outflow of approximately $105 million. Consequently, Graysale’s ranking in terms of AUM has been surpassed by another firm.

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2024-05-29 10:02