Entering Top 150 ETFs: BlackRock’s IBIT Bitcoin Fund Surpasses $10 Billion in AUM

BlackRock’s IBIT spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has reached $10 billion in assets under management (AUM) within seven weeks of its launch on January 11.

The fund now holds over 162,000 Bitcoin, making it one of the few ETFs to surpass the $10 billion mark.

Spot Bitcoin ETF Performance

Nate Geraci, president of the ETF store, provided context for IBIT’s achievement, highlighting that only a fraction of ETFs globally have surpassed the $10 billion AUM mark, with the majority being established over a decade ago.

iShares Bitcoin ETF now > $9bil in assets…

This thing could hit $10bil today or tomorrow.

For context, only about 150 out of 3,400 ETFs have > $10bil AUM.

The vast majority of those launched 10+yrs ago.

IBIT could hit this mark in 7 weeks.

— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) February 29, 2024

IBIT’s performance was also shown by its inflows on Thursday, contributing $603.9 million to its assets under management, narrowly missing the record set the day before at $612.1 million. However, this increase was partially offset by outflows from Grayscale’s GBTC, amounting to $598.9 million, marking the second-largest outflow recorded.

Despite the surge in outflows from Grayscale’s GBTC, other U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, such as Fidelity’s FBTC and Bitwise’s BITB, witnessed notable inflows. Net inflows for all U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs combined experienced a decline to $92.4 million on Thursday, compared to the record $673.4 million seen just a day earlier.

Following IBIT’s success, Fidelity’s FBTC ETF and Ark Invest 21 Shares’ ARKB have grown significantly. Fidelity’s FBTC has surpassed 105,000 Bitcoin ($6.3 billion) in assets, while Ark Invest 21 Shares’ ARKB emerges in third place with over 34,000 Bitcoin ($2.1 billion).

Meanwhile, Grayscale’s GBTC has experienced a significant decline. Since the introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs, the fund’s holdings have plummeted by 30% to just over 432,000 Bitcoin ($27 billion).

European Bitcoin ETPs Experience Outflows

BitMEX Research analysts noted a trend of outflows from Europe’s largest Bitcoin exchange-traded products, possibly indicating a shift towards U.S.-based ETFs and potential profit-taking strategies.

Since January 11, 2024, approximately $344 million has been withdrawn from the six major European Bitcoin ETPs, with $50 million occurring on February 29, 2024.

Bitcoin ETF Flow

In addition to the large GBTC $600m outflow today, also worth mentioning somewhat of a pick-up in outflows for Europe’s largest Bitcoin ETPs in the last few days.

This is likely to be primarily caused by switching to the US ETFs, but also perhaps some profit… https://t.co/TUbb2v8L78 pic.twitter.com/jcMlNBiOpK

— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) March 1, 2024

Overall, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs broke their daily volume records on February 28, 2024, totaling nearly $7.7 billion worth of assets traded on that day alone. This represents a 63.8% increase from their previous peak of $4.7 billion on their first day of trading on January 11, 2024.