U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETFs Bought 5x The Total BTC Mined This Week

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have returned to the spotlight as trading volumes surged this week. On Thursday, May 16, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $257 million in net inflows, with GBTC reporting inflows for the second consecutive day.

Bitcoin ETF Inflows Bounce Back This Week

After seeing some major outflows last week, the U.S. Bitcoin ETFs have bounced back strongly with over $657 million in inflows till Thursday. As per the on-chain data, the BTC ETFs have scooped a total of 11,188 Bitcoins which is nearly five times the Bitcoins mined.

🧮 Week-to-date 1,800 #Bitcoin was mined (450×4) ⛏️

✅ Week-to-date, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs bought 11,188 #Bitcoin 🧮 pic.twitter.com/b2unkrr8G0

— HODL15Capital 🇺🇸 (@HODL15Capital) May 17, 2024

As of May 16, US Bitcoin spot ETFs witnessed a total net inflow of $257 million. Grayscale’s ETF GBTC experienced a notable single-day net inflow of $4.6382 million. Additionally, BlackRock’s ETF IBIT recorded a net inflow of $93.7004 million, while Fidelity’s ETF FBTC saw a net inflow of $67.0829 million within the same timeframe.

As we have seen over the last week, some of the big market players in traditional finance have been declaring their exposure to Bitcoin ETFs. This shows that institutional participation in Bitcoin ETF is strong and likely to continue going ahead. As per the data from Bitwise asset management, more than 700 institutional investors are likely to seek exposure to these Bitcoin funds.

Hong Kong Bitcoin ETFs Have Lackluster Performance

The initial excitement surrounding Hong Kong’s first exchange-traded funds (ETFs) investing directly in cryptocurrency has fallen short compared to their US counterparts. Data from Bloomberg reveals that the total assets of the six Bitcoin and Ether ETFs have decreased by approximately $25 million from the initial $293 million gathered at their debut two weeks ago, indicating investor outflows.

Le Shi, head of trading at market-making and algorithmic trading firm Auros, described the response to the Hong Kong launches as “lukewarm” so far. Speaking to Bloomberg, he added:

“Firstly, they got beaten to the punch by the US. Secondly, there’s ongoing uncertainty about China’s intentions with regards to crypto, which is causing potential investors to tread carefully, or avoid the jurisdiction altogether.”

Bloomberg Intelligence ETF Analyst Rebecca Sin highlighted some positives from the launches, noting that total assets have already surpassed $250 million. Sin anticipates that more issuers will “join the race” as the ecosystem evolves, predicting that these portfolios could accumulate $1 billion within two years.