Bitcoin ETF Flows Show Negative Trend For First Time Since Launch

The group of recently launched spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are seeing combined negative flows for the first time since they opened for trade on Jan. 11 as money moving into funds like BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC has failed to keep pace with the exits from Grayscale’s GBTC.

According to data collected by Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart, the 10 spot bitcoin ETFs (GBTC included) saw a net outflow of $158 million on Wednesday. Day-to-day flows can, of course, be mercurial. Numbers compiled by CoinDesk from the issuers' websites shows total bitcoin held by all of the spot ETFs (GBTC included) as of Jan. 24 of about 649,000 versus more than 660,000 a week earlier, a decline of roughly 11,000 tokens.

The only fund that saw actual negative flows over the week was GBTC, which saw its total bitcoin in trust fall to 523,516 from 592,098.

Among the other nine funds, BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC are leading the way, with each now holding more than 40,000 bitcoin as of Jan. 24 versus 20,000-25,000 for each one week ago. Both are also closing in on $2 billion in assets under management.

However, inflows for both funds have slowed over the past several days. BlackRock, for example, added just 1,663 tokens on Jan. 24, its weakest daily addition since opening for business, and down from 8,705 on Jan. 17.

Despite the slowdown over the last week, net inflows the 10 spot ETFs opened for business on Jan. 11 remain sizable. Seyffart's Bloomberg colleague Eric Balchunas calculated total dollar inflows of $824 million since launch, which translates into a net bitcoin addition of about 17,000-20,000 tokens.