The recently approved Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including those from BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Invesco, have not seen the fervent investor interest that was anticipated. According to data from digital asset management firm CoinShares, these Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net inflow of $871 million in the first three days of trading. BlackRock led with an inflow of $723 million, followed by Fidelity with $545 million. However, Grayscale, an asset management company, experienced an outflow of $1.18 billion.
Analysts noted that after obtaining approval, Grayscale converted its existing $28 billion Bitcoin trust into a Bitcoin ETF. The higher transaction fees charged by Grayscale, compared to its competitors, led some investors to transfer their funds to other companies' Bitcoin ETFs. Excluding Grayscale's outflows, the newly issued Bitcoin ETFs attracted slightly more than $2 billion.
Since the approval of the Bitcoin ETFs, the price of Bitcoin has fallen by about 6%. Zach Pandl, Director of Research at Grayscale, commented that it's natural for investors to take profits after significant valuation increases.
Ilan Solot, Co-Head of Digital Assets at Marex Solutions, mentioned to the media that the approval of Bitcoin ETFs cannot be considered a major success. The recent price trend of Bitcoin indicates that the much-anticipated product has so far not made a significant impression.
The overall performance of these Bitcoin spot ETFs also fell short of the Bitcoin futures ETF launched by ProShares in October 2021, which attracted $1 billion in the first two days.
Meanwhile, some brokers have refused to offer trades in the new Bitcoin ETFs. Vanguard, the world's second-largest asset manager, stated that these new products do not align with its approach of providing balanced, long-term investment portfolios.
