U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) racked up $4.6 billion in total trading volume on their first day of trading. Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, debuted with more than $1 billion in trading volume for its Ishares Bitcoin Trust. Grayscale’s spot bitcoin ETF, which converted from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, registered a total trading volume of $2.3 billion. This is “easily the biggest Day One splash in ETF history,” said an ETF analyst.
$4.6 Billion in Total Trading Volume
The long-awaited debut of U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) ignited a trading frenzy on their first day of trading Thursday, reaching a cumulative volume of $4.6 billion. Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, debuted with over $1 billion in trading volume for its Ishares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), followed by Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), with a trading volume of $712 million.
Grayscale’s spot bitcoin ETF, which was converted from its bitcoin trust (GBTC), had a total trading volume of $2.3 billion. Noting that Grayscale’s bitcoin ETF volume “isn’t ‘new’ per se,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas opined on social media platform X Thursday: “Good sign to see 4 issuers over $100m. Strong middle class in the works.” He emphasized:
Easily the biggest Day One splash in ETF history.
In a follow-up post, the Bloomberg analyst wrote: “All told there were 700,000 individual trades today in and out of the 11 spot ETFs. For context, that is double the number of trades for $QQQ (altho it sees much bigger $ volume bc bigger fish use it) So a lot more grassroots action (vs big seed buys) than I expected which is good.”
The SEC approved 11 spot bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday after many years of anticipation. All of them started trading on Thursday. However, despite greenlighting spot bitcoin ETFs, SEC Chair Gary Gensler cautioned that this wasn’t an endorsement of bitcoin itself. He continues to caution investors about the risks of investing in crypto assets.
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