Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Records First Inflows After $17.5 Billion in Outflows
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust sees first inflows, reversing $17.5B outflow trend
In a surprising development, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) has registered its first-ever inflow, breaking a prolonged period of daily outflows that persisted since its launch on January 11, 2024. This shift occurred after the fund had lost a substantial $17.46 billion. On May 3, 2024, Grayscale’s Spot Bitcoin ETF received about $63 million in inflows, ending its 82-day streak of losses.
Other Bitcoin ETFs also saw inflows, contributing to $378.3 million in one day across various funds. For instance, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) gained $12.7 million, while Franklin Templeton’s EZBC led with $102.6 million. This influx of funds was so unexpected that Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, double-checked his figures to verify the accuracy.
Prior challenges for GBTC included hefty outflows linked to its high management fees and connections to failed crypto businesses. Grayscale’s fee of 1.5% is notably higher than other U.S. Bitcoin ETFs, with BlackRock charging just 0.25%. Some outflows were associated with the sales from the collapsed exchange FTX, which had offloaded about $1 billion worth of GBTC.
Another major sale involved Genesis, a cryptocurrency brokerage, which sold nearly 36 million GBTC shares to buy 32,041 BTC, valued at over $2.1 billion. This turn towards inflows might indicate a changing investor sentiment in the cryptocurrency ETF market, suggesting a potential stabilization after a period of volatility.
