Cathie Wood’s ARK Bitcoin ETF Sees Record Outflow, Exceeding Grayscale GBTC

Cathie Wood’s ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) experienced a significant shift in investor sentiment, with a record daily outflow of over $87 million on April 2nd. This marks the first time an ETF has surpassed Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) in daily outflows since the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US.

Data from Farside Investors shows that ARKB lost $87.5 million (roughly 1,300 BTC) on April 2nd, following a smaller outflow of $300,000 on its first down day on April 1st.

While ARKB’s outflow is significant, Grayscale remains the dominant player. Despite experiencing consistent outflows since converting to a spot ETF equivalent, GBTC still saw a daily outflow of $81.9 million on April 2nd. Notably, this is lower than GBTC’s average daily outflow of $254 million over the past five trading days, highlighting a potential slowdown in their recent trend.

Despite the outflows from ARKB and GBTC, a $150.5 million inflow for BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF resulted in a net positive inflow of $40.3 million for the day across all spot Bitcoin ETFs. As of now, ARKB holds the third-largest position among the ten newly launched spot ETFs (excluding Grayscale), with $2.2 billion in assets under management (AUM). However, BlackRock and Fidelity’s funds hold the top two spots with AUMs of $14.1 billion and $7.6 billion respectively.

Bitcoin Holdings and Price Movement

In terms of Bitcoin holdings, ARKB currently holds 44,662 BTC, ranking it as the sixth largest holder along with funds, corporations, and miners. GBTC, despite losing a significant amount (291,000 BTC) since its conversion, continues to lead with approximately 329,000 BTC in its holdings.

The price of Bitcoin has mirrored these recent outflows, dropping around 9% from its April high of $71,500 and briefly dipping below $65,000 on April 3rd.

Analyst Eric Balchunas noted on X that the first-ever 2x and -2x leveraged spot Bitcoin ETFs, BITU and SBIT by ProShares, have launched. These are expected to be highly volatile with a standard deviation of about 150%.

Balchunas further highlighted the significant increase in Bitcoin ETF trading volume, reaching $111 billion in March – nearly triple the combined volume of February and January.