Spot Bitcoin ETF Flows Shift Positively as Grayscale’s GBTC Outflows Slow Down

Wednesday saw spot Bitcoin ETF flows shift to the positive side for the week, surpassing the outflows recorded on Monday.

This turnaround can be attributed to Grayscale’s GBTC experiencing a slowdown in outflows, with Wednesday’s outflow amounting to $75.1 million.

Inflows Surge to $113 Million, GBTC Outflows Ease

As of Wednesday, data from Farside indicates total inflows amounting to $113.5 million. Fidelity’s FBTC led with $116.7 million, followed by Blackrock’s IBIT with $42 million, and Bitwise’s BTIB recording $23 million in inflows.

Grayscale’s GBTC witnessed a slowdown in outflows, totaling $75.1 million, the lowest figure since February 26. Meanwhile, other ETFs saw relatively modest inflows, each adding less than $4 million, resulting in a total net inflow of $12.2 billion.

The turnaround in ETF flows comes after a bad start to the week. On Monday, the market witnessed net outflows totaling $85.7 million, primarily from significant outflows from Grayscale’s GBTC, which recorded outflows worth $302.6 million.

Commenting on the situation then, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said, “Honestly higher than I expected,” “I thought this would have slowed down by now.”

This negative trend reversed on Tuesday and Wednesday when GBTC’s outflows gradually slowed to $81.9 million on Tuesday and further to $75.1 million on Wednesday.

Genesis’ GBTC Shares Sale Linked to Selling Pressure

Last month, a report from Coinbase suggested that the potential sale of 35.9 million GBTC shares by Genesis Global Holdco LLC, valued at around $2 billion, might have triggered the recent selling pressure on GBTC.

This was after Genesis received permission from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on February 14 to sell its GBTC shares.

Meanwhile, GBTC currently charges a fee of 1.5% for its spot Bitcoin ETF, whereas FBTC and IBIT charge 0.25%. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented on GBTC’s higher fee, noting that despite outflows and complaints, GBTC is unlikely to lower its own, even though Grayscale’s CEO recently promised they will.

Equity mutual funds have seen $3.5T of outflows in past 10yrs yet their assets has jumped by $6T to reach $14T bc stocks up 280% in that time. This prob the best eg of the “bull market subsidy” there is and why $GBTC likely not motivated to lower fee despite outflows/complaints pic.twitter.com/z47TFeqmVq

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) April 3, 2024

 

He compared it to the situation with equity mutual funds, which have seen significant outflows over the past decade but have still increased in assets due to the overall rise in stock prices. This suggests that GBTC benefits from the bullish market conditions and may not feel pressured to reduce its fee.