One month after their launch, BlackRock and Fidelity’s Bitcoin spot ETFs are the best launches in the last 30 years out of a basket of 5,355 ETFs. Other competing funds are also present in the top 25, testifying to investor interest in this type of product.
Bitcoin spot ETFs outperform other ETFs at start-up
Since BlackRock entered the fray in the summer of 2023, the subject of spot Bitcoin ETFs has been much talked about, right up to their approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month.
While, at least in the short term, the price of BTC has not exploded upwards, the volumes generated on the various ETFs involved have been such as to surpass the launches of the last 30 years.
According to data shared by Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC were the best launches one month after their arrival on the market, out of a basket of 5,535 ETFs:
Here’s a look at the Top 25 ETFs by assets after 1 month on the market (out of 5,535 total launches in 30yrs). $IBIT and $FBTC in league of own w/ over $3b each and they still have two days to go. $ARKB and $BITB also made list. pic.twitter.com/Yyi1nxukUk
– Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 8, 2024
In the above ranking, we can also find ProShares’ BITO in a good position, which is none other than the first Bitcoin ETF backed by futures contracts approved by the SEC in autumn 2021. In addition, this selection also includes Ark Invest’s ARKB and Bitwise’s BITB.
An important point to consider in Eric Balchunas’ analysis is that he only takes into account ETFs created at launch and not existing converted funds such as GBTC, which would obviously skew the figures:
” This list only includes ETFs created at launch. I have rejected all conversions, which include around 100 conversions from mutual funds to ETFs and GBTCs (as they bring in pre-existing assets). I can’t consider them newborns. Nor do we count this initial AUM as “flows”. “
However, an interesting remark in the comments raises the point that this ranking does not take inflation into account. To this, the analyst replies that, indeed, the gold-indexed GLD should be a little higher in the ranking under these conditions.
However, this nuance doesn’t detract from the strong performance of Bitcoin spot ETFs.
At the time of writing, these investment vehicles have $29.41 billion in assets under management, led by Grayscale’s GBTC with $21.33 billion. IBIT and FBTC, meanwhile, have $3.51 and $2.86 billion in assets under management respectively, ranking 2nd and 3rd.
