Grayscale and BlackRock's Bitcoin ETFs lead the market, with more than $3.000 billion in combined volume on their first day of trading.
The Bitcoin and cryptocurrency community has enthusiastically welcomed the approval of Bitcoin ETFs in the United States, even though the securities regulator's chairman, Gary Gensler, stressed that the authorization of these financial instruments does not mean that the regulator approves or endorses Bitcoin.
The price of cryptocurrency touched almost $49.000 on Thursday, January 11, after the approval of the spot ETFs, while the volume generated by these instruments was above $4.300 billion dollars on its first day on the stock market, led by Grayscale Investments and BlackRock.
Eric Balchunas, an ETF expert at Bloomberg who has closely followed the development of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in recent months, also highlighted that Bitcoin ETFs outperformed 700.000 trades daily, an amount comparable to the number of transactions recorded by the QQQ fund.
Balchunas commented that in terms of volume, QQQ trades add up to a higher value than Bitcoin ETFs, but that this is because “bigger fish are using it.” In the case of Bitcoin, he noted that there was much more base action than expected, which was very important.
BlackRock's IBTC was the best-performing Bitcoin ETF
While GBTC reached over $2.000 billion in volume on Thursday, this is not a new Bitcoin investment fund, but rather the conversion of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Investments’ private trust, into a spot ETF for the cryptocurrency. Experts and commentators are therefore pointing out that BlackRock’s IBTC has taken the top spot as the best-performing Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, in terms of trading volume, on its first day of trading among new funds.
According to data from Yahoo Finance, IBTC recorded just over $1.400 billion in trading volume on Thursday.
On the other hand, Fidelity's trading volume ranked it as the second best-performing Bitcoin ETF on its first day, followed by Ark Invest's mutual fund and 21Shares.
Balchunas said that Grayscale's Bitcoin ETF volume likely came primarily from GBTC investors selling. This was because the company's investment fund was a private trust before becoming an exchange-traded fund.
Successful debut marks the beginning of a new era for crypto
The SEC's decision, which was announced on Wednesday January 10, as reported by this media, responds to requests from more than a dozen fund issuers, who were seeking approval from the regulator to end a long wait that began in 2013, when the Winklevoss brothers presented the first proposal to create a Bitcoin ETF, which was rejected by the SEC.
However, now with the regulatory endorsement that these investment products based on the most popular and valuable cryptocurrency in the world have achieved, a new era of exposure to digital assets is beginning, and the successful debut of these crypto financial vehicles supports this vision.
James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, said the huge volume generated by Bitcoin ETFs on their first day is an indication of the high demand the cryptocurrency will see from investors looking for safe exposure.
Bitcoin Price Reaction to ETFs
Bitcoin's price saw a significant boost following the launch of the ETFs, although not as much as expected.
The leading cryptocurrency hit $48.800 on Thursday. However, at the time of writing, BTC is trading at around $46.000, down 0,4% in the past few hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Despite the positive reaction that Bitcoin ETFs have generated, some purist Bitcoiners don't seem to be too enthusiastic about this event. Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, responded to Peter Schiff's criticism of the complexity of Bitcoin as an investment asset by saying that spot ETFs are instruments that are only necessary for the generation to which Schiff belongs, who is about to turn 61. "The rest of us have self-custody," he said. emphasized Mow.
Continue reading: BREAKING NEWS: SEC Approves Bitcoin ETFs
