On April 10, GBTC observed a remarkable dip in outflows, marking a stark contrast to the average daily outflows witnessed over the past four months.
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) documented its lowest net outflow at $17.5 million since its transition to a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), as reported by Farside Investors data on Wednesday.
This development comes in the wake of a statement by Grayscale Investments CEO Michael Sonnenshein, indicating that the company’s fund is approaching a state of “equilibrium” regarding its outflows.
Slowed GBTC Outflows
Data from Farside reveals that GBTC experienced combined net outflows surpassing $450 million on Monday and Tuesday, contributing to over $16 billion in cumulative outflows in the last three months. However, these outflows decelerated to $17.5 million on Wednesday, a significant drop from the $154.9 million recorded on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETF registered net inflows of $76.3 million, BlackRock’s IBIT attracted $33.3 million, and Bitwise’s Bitcoin ETF observed inflows amounting to $24.3 million. Additionally, Ark Invest’s ARKB saw $7.3 million of net inflows.
Collectively, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, including Grayscale, witnessed net inflows of $123.7 million, marking an improvement after experiencing cumulative net outflows amounting to $19.4 million on April 9.
Sonnenshein noted that the anticipation of reaching a balance in outflows follows a phase of substantial capital flight driven by a mix of switch trades and settlements from bankruptcies like FTX.
Stabilized GBTC Flows
Benjamin Stani, director of business development at Matrixport, remarked that GBTC flows seem to have stabilized, with many forced sellers potentially exhausted. However, Stani cautioned that outflows could potentially surge again, considering the volatility observed in weekly flows of ETFs since their approval. He stressed the importance of exercising caution when interpreting this data point, noting past periods of slowdown.
Declining Market Share for Grayscale
BlackRock’s IBIT fund reached $18.2 billion in assets under management (AUM) on Tuesday, trailing slightly behind Grayscale’s $23.2 billion. As BlackRock’s popularity surged, it gradually closed the gap between the two. Just two months prior, Grayscale’s fund boasted approximately $23.4 billion in AUM, while BlackRock’s stood at $4.4 billion.
Grayscale’s ETF, initially launched with nearly $30 billion in AUM, has seen a declining trend in AUM, partially attributed to Genesis selling GBTC shares, according to Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg. In terms of trading volume, Grayscale’s fund has been relinquishing market share, dropping from around 50% at the inception of spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 11 to 23.5% on Tuesday.
Nope. In fact, the exact opposite is true, the new ‘Boomer’ ETF investors are the strong ones (as we predicted), it’s other bitcoin owners behind the selling pressure. I’ll explain: the nine new Bitcoin ETFs have taken in about $1.2b in past 5 days as price declined 8%. $GBTC had… https://t.co/X6UXyBrGy8
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) March 22, 2024
