According to Blockworks, despite a slowdown in demand for US spot bitcoin ETFs, the category managed to break a five-day outflow streak on the day of the bitcoin halving. The 11-fund segment collectively attracted $60 million of assets during Friday’s trading hours, as per data from Farside Investors. The bitcoin halving, which saw per-block rewards paid to miners drop from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, took place around 8 pm ET that night. Prior to Friday, US bitcoin funds had experienced $319 million of net outflows over a five-day period.
Overall, US spot bitcoin ETFs suffered net outflows for the second consecutive week, totaling $204 million from April 15 to April 19. The primary contributor to last week’s outflows was the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), which lost $458 million. The BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) were unable to fully compensate for these GBTC asset losses, recording net inflows last week of $165 million and $94 million, respectively.
Grayscale announced a proposed fee of 0.15% for its Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC), significantly lower than GBTC’s fee of 1.5%. GBTC plans to seed the spin-off fund, and a portion of the bitcoin holdings would be allocated to the new proposed fund. Trading volumes for crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) more broadly fell to $18 billion last week, according to CoinShares head of research James Butterfill. These volumes represent 28% of total bitcoin volumes, a substantial decrease from 55% a month ago.
BlackRock concluded the week with an active daily net inflow streak of 69 days. IBIT’s daily inflow run is the 11th-best streak for an ETF, as per Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas. The BlackRock bitcoin fund’s net inflows during the first quarter accounted for about 20% of the asset management giant’s ETF inflows over that period.
