Bitcoin Price Maintains $70,500 as GBTC Net Outflows Exceed $14.1 Billion

The price of Bitcoin has maintained a level around $70,500 despite recent outflows from spot ETFs. 

At the time of writing, the leading cryptocurrency is trading at $70,584, up by 5.12% over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. 

The flagship cryptocurrency is up by almost 9% over the past week and by around 37% over the past month. It is just 4.6% away from its all-time high of $73,750 registered on March 14. 

Bitcoin Maintains Momentum Despite GBTC Outflows

Bitcoin’s current price stability around $70,500 comes amidst the backdrop of significant outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). 

According to data from Farside, GBTC has seen more than $14.1 billion in outflows since the fund was converted from a trust to an ETF.

Furthermore, the US spot bitcoin ETFs experienced a continuous streak of net outflows for five consecutive days. The outlflow streak ended on Monday with spot bitcoin ETFs reporting a net inflow of $15.4 million. 

According to data from BitMEX Research, these funds witnessed a total of $888 million in investor withdrawals over the course of the last week.

The largest outflows occurred on March 19 and March 20, with $326 million and $262 million leaving the funds, respectively. 

However, the pace of net outflows gradually slowed down later in the week, with $94 million withdrawn on Thursday and $52 million on Friday.

Notably, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) reported its lowest single-day flow total on Friday, with a meager $19 million. 

Alongside the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF, both IBIT and Fidelity’s offering managed to attract net inflows during each of their first 50 days of trading, an accomplishment that has not been seen before in the realm of new ETFs.

This recent outflow streak represents the first time the sector has witnessed five consecutive days of net outflows. 

It follows a record-breaking week during which the ETFs experienced an influx of $2.5 billion in net inflows, highlighting the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market.

Grayscale Outflows Might be Nearing End

Analysts believe that the trend of outflows from Grayscale’s fund may soon come to an end. 

Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas speculated that the majority of the outflows are a result of bankruptcies in the crypto industry and that the worst may be close to being over. 

Balchunas suggested that any outflows from Gemini or Genesis, two prominent players in the industry, are likely being used to buy Bitcoin, thereby supporting the market.

“Takeaway: the worst is prob close to being over. Once it is, only retail will be left and flows should look more like the Feb trickle,” Balchunas wrote on X. 

The more I think about it the more likely the uptick in flows is related to the bankruptcies bc of the size and consistency. The flows in Feb showed what retail outflows look like, smaller and random pattern. Also any Gemini/Genisis outflows likely buying btc w cash hence market…

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) March 22, 2024

Likewise, independent researcher ErgoBTC noted that approximately $1.1 billion worth of recent GBTC outflows seem to be associated with bankrupt crypto lender Genesis. 

“Resulting activity volumes and timings of funds out of GBTC and into Genesis match pretty well,” Ergo said. 

“Simply there just aren’t that many 2k BTC txs per day so likely the GBTC outflows and Genesis inflows are related.”