Investors bought a whopping 4,869 BTC worth $329 million through BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) on October 21. The move came as crypto markets retreated and competing U.S.-based Bitcoin exchange-traded funds saw exits.
All other funds other than Fidelity saw zero or negative inflows, bringing the total net inflow across all funds to $294.3 million.
Blackrock buys the bathroom! Buy 4869 #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/ztRCa8zMmO
— Thomas | heyapollo.com (@thomas_fahrer) October 22, 2024
IBIT on a Roll by BlackRock
BlackRock’s big influx marks the sixth consecutive day of trading in tickets, which have totaled $1.47 billion over the past week. The IBIT has now seen a total inflow of more than $23 billion since its launch in January.
ETF Store President Nate Geraci he said The value of last week’s inflows alone would make it one of the top five releases of 2024 out of 570 ETFs.
On Oct. 21, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented on the fund’s best week, its best since March, adding that its assets under management (AUM) are at 2% of all the ETFs.
Additionally, IBIT ranked third for year-to-date inflows among all exchange-traded ETFs, beating the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI).
$IBIT had a hell of a week, +$1.1B in new cash, best week since March $VTI for 3rd overall in YTD flows (insane for a new release, especially at the end of the year, the rest of the top 5 are over 20 years old and over $300M. $IBITThe $26 million increase is the top 2% of all ETFs. pic.twitter.com/KX7eD3EzFP
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 21, 2024
Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF ( FBTC ) had a lower entry of $5.9 million, its seventh straight trading day of positive numbers. However, ETFs from Bitwise, Ark 21Shares, VanEck and Grayscale saw exits as markets recovered.
Spot Ethereum ETFs didn’t have such a good day, with a net outflow of $20.8 million on Oct. 21, according to preliminary data from Farside Investors. Grayscale’s ETHE fund hemorrhaged another $29.6 million, negating inflows from BlackRock ( ETHA ) and VanEck ( ETHV ).
Grayscale’s continued exodus of more than $3 billion to date has dragged down the entire Ethereum fund lot, and this is likely to continue until investors have exited the high-fee ETHE fund and redistributed to others.
The crypto market retreats
BlackRock’s big entry day comes as markets pull back and Bitcoin is down 3.3% from its multi-month high of $69,300, falling back below $67,000.
The pullback was expected as leveraged open interest and BTC futures hit all-time highs. BTC has since recovered to trade at $67,500 at the time of writing.
Altcoins were hardest hit as usual, with biggest losses for Ethereum, Near Protocol, Sui and Litecoin as total market capitalization fell to $2.44 trillion.
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