Grayscale GBTC Outflows Resume As Fed Official Hints At Keeping Interest Rates High

After two days of consecutive inflows, the party for Bitcoin ETF ends with net outflows resuming once again on Tuesday, May 7. As per data from Farside Investors, the US Bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows of $15.7 million with Grayscale Bitcoin ETF GBTC alone reporting $28.6 million in net outflows.

Grayscale GBTC Outflows Resume Again

After seeing two days of inflows last week, outflows from Grayscale’s GBTC have resumed back once again. As of Tuesday’s closing, the total outflows from Grayscale’s GBTC are falling just short of $17.5 billion.

There’s been a strong notion that institutional investors have been exiting GBTC amid the high management fees by Grayscale. However, as per the latest SEC filings, asset manager Susquehanna International holds over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin in Grayscale’s ETF (GBTC), during the first quarter of 2024. This shows that the Grayscale Bitcoin investment product still remains in demand among institutional players, despite sizeable outflows.

The GBTC share (NYSEARCA: GBTC) price is up by 10% over the last week as inflows resumed. However, it came under mild pressure on Tuesday, ending the trading day at $56.11. In a surprising move on Tuesday, Grayscale also withdrew its Ethereum ETF application.

Fed to Keep Interest Rates Unchanged?

In the past few trading sessions, the cryptocurrency market has been rejoicing in the hope that the Fed is likely to begin rate cuts supported by higher jobless data.

Neel Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, indicated that the central bank is inclined to maintain current interest rates “for an extended period” until there is confidence that inflation is moving toward its target. While speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Tuesday, Kashkari added:

“The most likely scenario is we sit here for an extended period of time. If inflation starts to tick back down or we saw some marked weakening in the labour market then that might cause us to cut back on interest rates.”

If true, the selling pressure on Bitcoin will continue on every rise thereby keeping the Bitcoin price range bound. Since April last month, the BTC price has oscillated in the range of $60,000-$70,000. Analysts predict that this is likely to continue for a few more weeks until we see a final breakout rally to its new all-time highs.