Share this article
Recent Inflows Into Spot Bitcoin ETFs Could Be Purely Directional Plays: Van Straten
Since Nov. 20, ETFs have seen over $3 billion in net inflows while open interest on the CME exchange has declined.
Dec 4, 2024, 1:05 p.m.
What to know:
- Open interest on the CME exchange has seen an almost 30,000 BTC reduction since Nov. 20.
- In the same period, net inflows into the U.S. spot-listed ETFs were more than $3 billion.
- On Nov. 29, open interest on the CME exchange posted its biggest one-day decline ever.
The bitcoin market is seeing unusual activity, hinting at increased adoption of the U.S.-listed spot ETFs for purely directional plays rather than arbitrage strategies.
Since Nov. 20, the ETFs have seen strong daily uptake — other than Nov. 25 and 26 — capturing over $3 billion in net inflows, according to data source Farside Investors. On Tuesday, BlackRock's IBIT registered a $693.3 million net inflow, the most since in the period, bringing the lifetime tally to $32. 8 billion.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Meanwhile, open interest in CME futures has declined by almost 30,000 BTC ($3 billion) to 185,485 BTC, according to data source Glassnode.
The divergence is unusual and might be a sign of market participants buying the ETFs as outright bullish plays rather than as part of a price-neutral cash-and-carry strategy.
Since the ETFs debuted in January, institutions have primarily used them to set up that strategy, involving a long position in the ETF and a short position in the CME futures. The opposing positions let institutions pocket the futures premium while bypassing price risks. That's why ETF inflows and the CME open interest have tended to move in tandem.
Carry yield is still attractive
Note that the carry strategy is still attractive, offering returns far more attractive than the U.S. 10-year Treasury note or ether's staking yield.
As of writing, the annualized three-month basis in CME's BTC futures was 16%. In other words, setting up a cash and carry trade would earn you 16%, although it's a far cry from actually holding the cryptocurrency, which is up over 100% this year.
The cash-and-carry yield, represented by the futures premium, peaked above 20% in the first quarter.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Ethereum’s P2P Layer Is Improving Just as Institutional ETH Buys Pick Up
Early PeerDAS performance is proof that the Ethereum Foundation can now ship complex networking improvements at scale.
What to know:
- Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that the network is addressing its lack of peer-to-peer networking expertise, highlighting the progress of PeerDAS.
- PeerDAS, a prototype for Data Availability Sampling, is crucial for Ethereum's scalability and decentralization through sharding.
- BitMine Immersion Technologies has significantly increased its Ethereum holdings, viewing it as a strategic investment in the network's future scaling capabilities.
Top Stories
