By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 26th, 2024
Grayscale’s BTC holding was down to 361.79K, from 624.28K Bitcoins it held by January 11, before ETF conversion.
The US spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are stuck in the red this week. The drop in demand coincided with a massive price retracement as BTC dropped from a high of $73K to $62K before rebounding after a dovish US Fed rate decision. However, the recovery didn’t stir up the demand for spot BTC ETFs, as they recorded cumulative net outflows for the fourth day.
Grayscale’s BTC Outflows
Much of the bleeding was from Grayscale’s GBTC. On March 18, the cumulative net outflow was $154.3M, with GBTC exerting more sell pressure with $642.5M in outflows. However, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) countered GBTC with $451.5M in inflows.
But BTC retracement tipped IBIT to record “dismal” performance on Tuesday and Wednesday, with less than $100M in inflows, only to bounce back on Thursday with $233.4M inflows.
Unfortunately, GBTC’s bleeding extended from Tuesday to Thursday, hitting $1.83B in outflows in four days. On March 21, GBTC outflows hit $358.8M, attracting the attention of Bloomberg senior ETF analyst James Seyffart.
$358.8 million out of $GBTC, outflows ain't stopping.
GBTC has now lost 42.3% of it's shares since converting to an ETF. https://t.co/bxFtNrgKsv
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) March 21, 2024
When tracked from the ETF conversion day, the total GBTC outflows translate to $13.36B.
As of press time, Arkham Intelligence data showed that Grayscale’s BTC holding was down to 361.79K, from 624.28K Bitcoins it held by January 11, before ETF conversion. That caps the drop in its BTC holding to 42.2%.
Meanwhile, Bitwise’s (BITB) and Ark (ARKB) crossed crucial milestones. BITB hit $1.5B in cumulative inflows, while ARKB crossed the $2B mark.
However, as the consecutive outflows show, the overall constrained demand for ETFs also lagged BTC price action.
At the time of writing, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap consolidated recent losses below $68K. Attention now shifts from the US Fed rate decision to the spot BTC ETF demand and Bitcoin halving event set for mid-April.
