The total volume of funds invested in spot Bitcoin ETFs exceeded $4.5 billion on the first day of trading. However, one of the issuers still operates an ETF based on bitcoin futures.
The first day of the launch of trading of the newly approved spot Bitcoin ETFs took off at rocket speed. Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock, Grayscale, and Fidelity topped the total volumes . However, for one issuer, the start did not go quite as expected.
Three spot Bitcoin ETFs with the largest volume in 24h
Aggregate data from Yahoo Finance shows that the total volume of ten spot Bitcoin ETFs reached more than $4.5 billion in total volume on the first day of trading.
Grayscale ‘s Bitcoin ETF , Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), has been the most successful of the newly launched funds . According to data from Yahoo Finance, the volume of total traded capital was $2.3 billion. This is almost 50% of the total volume of all ETFs .
Close behind was BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) . This amassed approximately $1 billion worth of capital in its first day of trading . In third place was Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust (FBTC) . It reached a volume of 688 million dollars on the first day of trading .
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Hashdex’s Bitcoin ETF
Hashdex’s Bitcoin ETF (DEFI) did not start trading on January 11 along with other funds. While the US Securities and Exchange Commission has approved Hashdex’s 19b-4 filing that would allow its spot ETF to be listed on US exchanges, the SEC has not validated its S-1 form .
This means that Hashdex’s “DEFI” ticker fund still trades only as a futures- based ETF . The company also issued a clarifying statement saying that the fund does not yet hold any spot Bitcoin in its portfolio .
The capital volume of the GBTC fund was mostly sellable
Trading volume includes incoming and outgoing transactions and does not provide a complete picture of how much of the day’s trading activity was buying and selling .
Bloomberg Chief ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas shared his theory on X that the vast majority of trading activity in GBTC was selling . And that’s because investors have moved from the fund to newer products with lower fees , such as the already mentioned ETFs by BlackRock and Fidelity. His colleague James Seyffart had the same opinion.
Purchases worth 47,000 BTC
Meanwhile, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF saw record trading activity. The total trading volume for the day exceeded 2 billion dollars .
Speculation also suggests that it is largely a sell-off as investors move away from exposure based on Bitcoin futures to cheaper and less volatile exposure based on spot BTC .
Timothy Peterson, investment manager at Cane Macro, estimated that the buying activity across the ETF means that around 47,000 bitcoins will need to be bought in the spot market . That would be $2.1 billion worth of bitcoins at current prices .
Balchunas said that investors who want to know the true numbers of the underlying bitcoin needed will most likely have to wait to get a better idea.
