- The top performer was BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust
- FBTC, Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETF, was a close second
- The third place went to Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF
BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale ETFs recorded substantial trading volumes on the first day of spot Bitcoin trading; Hashdex wasn’t among the approved candidates.
BlackRock and Fidelity led the pack, Hashdex is out
According to data compiled by Cointelegraph, the total trading volume of ten spot Bitcoin ETFs passed $4.5 billion on Jan. 11. The top performer was BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust with around $1 billion, accounting for almost a quarter of the group's total volume.
FBTC, Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETF, was a close second. It saw $685 million in trading volume on the first day.
The third place went to the company with the highest fees: Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF, which trades under the ticker GBTC. This platform represents a conversion of Grayscale’s preexisting Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which ultimately did become an ETF after prolonged legal battles.
Hashdex's DEFI fund is still trading as a futures-based ETF. It does not hold any spot Bitcoin in its portfolio after being rejected by the SEC.
Most trading activity was (probably) selling
Trading volume does not provide clear information about how much of the day’s trading activity is buying and how much is selling Bitcoin. Bloomberg financial analyst Eric Balchunas, quoted by Cointelegraph, suspects that most of the trades for GBTC involved selling. This is because one would expect traders to move assets out of this fund into cheaper and newer products, like those of Fidelity and BlackRock.
BITO, the ProShares Futures Bitcoin ETF, also experienced massive trading. According to the expert, selling accounted for most of that as well.
Investors must buy Bitcoin worth $2.1B on spot market
According to Cane Macro manager Timothy Peterson, purchasing activity across the ETFs means that BTC currently worth $2.1 billion will have to be bought on the spot market. Balchunas added that investors need to wait a few days to get more clarity of spot inflows.
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