As of January 11, the day ETFs began trading, Wall Street witnessed incredible activity in spot Bitcoin ETF transactions, with Grayscale becoming the star of the day. The first day saw a trading volume of over $4 billion. Bitcoin ETFs made history on their first day.
Bitcoin ETF Trading Volume
On the first day of trading for 11 Bitcoin ETF funds, which include giants like BlackRock Inc. and Fidelity Investments, approximately $4.6 billion worth of shares were traded.
On the other hand, since the first day, Bloomberg’s famous ETF strategist Eric Balchunas, reported that a total of 700,000 individual transactions were made in the 11 spot ETFs after they began trading.
To provide context, this number points to twice the transactions that took place in Invesco’s $QQQ. However, QQQ has a much larger dollar volume due to greater institutional participation. Balchunas made the following statement:
Eric Balchunas said the following about the topic:
Today, a total of 700,000 individual transactions occurred inside and outside of the 11 spot ETFs. For context, this is twice the number of transactions for $QQQ (even though it sees a much larger $ volume due to bigger fish using it) So a lot more retail movement than I expected (against big seed purchases)… A first day jump like this is unprecedented in ETF history. No matter how you look at it, it exceeded expectations.
In the ETFs that debuted on Thursday, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust reached a trading volume of $2.3 billion, setting a record for the highest first-day turnover in investment history for ETFs.
Furthermore, even ETFs that were launched as new to the market rather than by converting existing funds attracted attention with historic trading volumes.
There were also positive developments on BlackRock’s side. The iShares Bitcoin Trust, known as IBIT, became the owner of the fifth-largest ETF first-day trading volume with $1 billion in transactions on launch day.
Challenges Ahead for ETFs
How long-term successes in ETFs can emerge is already a subject of curiosity. It seems that seamless access to ETFs for investors will be one of the greatest forces on this topic.
In this context, Vanguard Group Inc.’s brokerage firm chose a different path for ETFs and opted not to facilitate transactions. Merrill Edge, operated by Bank of America Corp., is still evaluating whether to offer this service.
Contrary to those who are still skeptical, some platforms seem to have already embraced ETFs. According to Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood Markets Inc., the company intends to take swift action to list the funds.
Aside from the current excitement, uncertainties still persist. The timing of the decision by companies adding spot Bitcoin ETFs to their structures harbors all the uncertainties about how any new ETF might progress.
Bitcoin had surpassed the $49,000 level in the first hours of trading yesterday, but this did not last long and it fell below $46,000. As of writing time, it is trading at the $46,100 level.
