BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has seen a historic day of outflows, with $37 million being withdrawn. This marks the first time that the fund has experienced such a significant outflow. Additionally, other Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States have also recorded net outflows, totaling $526.8 million.
On May 1, BlackRock’s Bitcoin fund saw $36.9 million flow out, according to data from Farside Investors. Preliminary data from the same source reveals that nine other Bitcoin ETFs collectively recorded outflows, with the Hashdex Bitcoin ETF (DEFI) being the only one to report zero flows.
Among these ETFs, the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) experienced the largest outflow, with $191.1 million net outflows. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) followed closely behind, with an outflow of $167.4 million. The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF and Franklin Bitcoin ETF also saw outflows of $98.1 million and $13.4 million, respectively. These outflows coincide with a 10.7% decrease in the price of Bitcoin over the past week.
Nate Geraci, President of ETF Store, noted that the iShares Gold ETF and SPDR Gold ETFs have experienced outflows of $1 billion and $3 billion, respectively, so far this year. Despite these outflows, gold has shown a 16% increase year-to-date.
James Seyffart, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, emphasized that Bitcoin ETFs are still functioning smoothly overall, with inflows and outflows being a normal occurrence in the life of an ETF.
Bitcoin has had its most challenging month since the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire. The excitement surrounding US spot Bitcoin ETFs has waned, resulting in a nearly 16% decline in the cryptocurrency’s value in April. This decline is slightly better than the one witnessed in November 2022.
The surge in demand driven by the anticipation of ETFs propelled Bitcoin to an all-time high of almost $74,000 in March. However, as optimism for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts diminished and risky investments lost their appeal, inflows to these products significantly decreased.
The stocks of crypto mining companies also suffered more significant declines than Bitcoin itself. Companies like Marathon Digital Holdings Inc., Riot Platforms Inc., Cleanspark Inc., and Cipher Mining Inc. experienced drops ranging from 7.9% to 11%. MicroStrategy Inc., known for its corporate Bitcoin strategy, faced an 18% drop after reporting a first-quarter loss of $53 million due to an impairment charge against the value of its Bitcoin holdings.