US Bitcoin ETF Trading Hits Daily Record at $2.4B, BlackRock Leads: Bloomberg Intelligence

The newly launched nine Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. have broken an all-time daily record in volume, taking in $2.4 billion which is about double their recent daily average, according to Eric Balchunas from Bloomberg Intelligence.

The first day of trading for the ETFs was January 11, the $2.4 billion in trading on Monday, was mostly led by BlackRock’s ETF trading under the ticker “IBIT” which amassed $1,3 billion of the volume.

Why the Sudden Uptick?

Why the sudden spike in volume at the end of the trading day could be pinned to the price rally as Bitcoin price continues to steadily rise trading at around $56,400 during press time.

“$IBIT went wild accounting for $1.3 billion of it, [$2.4 billion] breaking its record by about 30%.” posted Balchunas. “Not totally sure reason besides price rally generating interest but it does seem like these things really see heightened action on first day after wkend, [weekend]” added Balchunas from Bloomberg.

“Godzilla” BlackRock Leads Bitcoin ETFs

Unsurprisingly, BlackRock’s IBIT ETF continues to lead the market and this in turn ranked the product high as eleventh among all ETFs.

“MILESTONE $IBIT has traded $1b worth of shares today so far.. which ranks it 11th among all ETFs (Top 0.3%) and Top 25 among stocks. Insane number for newbie ETF (esp one w ten competitors). $1b/day is big boy level volume, enough for (even big) institutional consideration,” posted Balchunas on X.

Competition Heats Up, Providers Slash Fees

Earlier this month, VanEck slashed its fees for the HODL exchange-traded fund (ETF), the VanEck Bitcoin Trust down to 0.20% from 0.25% according to a recent filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Currently, almost all of the Bitcoin ETF fees range from 0.19% to 0.39%.

Nearly a dozen Bitcoin ETFs are competing for investor attention in a saturated market. BlackRock has set its fee for the iShares ETF at 0.12% for the first 12 months or until the first $5 billion in assets under management, after which it plans to increase it to 0.25%.

Other issuers, such as ARK Invest, charge 0.21%, and Bitwise charges 0.20%. Spot Bitcoin ETFs are increasingly the go-to choice for mainstream investors. They address issues like storing crypto assets and dealing with fraudulent service providers.

Aurelie Barthere, Principal Research Analyst at Nansen, said in a recent interview with Cryptonews.com that she expects lower-fee ETFs to attract more inflows in the short term.

Spot Ethereum ETFs Next?

Many investment firms have filed applications with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch spot Ethereum ETFs in the U.S. market as demand for such products continues to heat up.

So far, BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, VanEck, Invesco, Franklin Templeton, Galaxy, as well as Cathy Wood’s Ark Invests and 21Shares, have all submitted applications for a spot Ethereum ETF.