BlackRock, Fidelity Bitcoin ETFs see largest debut month of any ETF in 30 years

BlackRock and Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have tallied more assets in their first month of trading than any ETF launched in the United States over the last 30 years.

Bloomberg Intelligence data shows BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC have each secured more than $3 billion in assets in the first 17 trading days, the only ones to do so out of a list of over 5,500 ETFs.

IBIT and FBTC are in a “league of [their] own,” said Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas in a Feb. 8 post on X.

Before the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs, BlackRock’s iShares Climate Conscious & Transition MSCI USA ETF — which launched on June 8, 2023 — was the leader with the most AUM in its debut month at $2.2 billion.

Balchunas said BlackRock and Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF results are even more impressive as most other ETFs that ranked on the list were “BYOA” or “Bring Your Own Assets” type of ETFs — meaning one investor was behind all of the ETF’s assets under management.

BlackRock and Fidelity’s ETFs on the other hand, have seen inflows every single trading day since launch, which Balchunas described as: “Literally unprecedented.”

#news #btc #etf #BlackRock

‘Big volume day’ for BlackRock as Bitcoin ETFs notch $1B volume

Total daily trading volume for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) topped a billion dollars on Feb. 7, with BlackRock leading the pack.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart described it as a “big volume day” for BlackRock’s IBIT Bitcoin ETF, which saw a daily trading volume of $341.2 million, eclipsing Grayscale Bitcoin Trust’s $296.5 million in volume, according to Seyffart.

Meanwhile, Fidelity’s FBTC fund came in third with $200 million in volume, and the remaining seven funds had $188 million in daily volume — bringing the total for the day to more than a billion dollars.

Seyffart however commented that crossing $1 billion “isn’t that big of a deal” for the Bitcoin ETFs” as “it's a tick-up from recent days but still far below the first couple of weeks of trading.”

BlackRock saw an inflow of $56 million, while Fidelity’s fund increased by $130 million, and Bitwise inflowers were $21 million.

On Feb. 8, investor and author Fred Krueger observed that the combined BTC holdings of the newly launched nine ETFs were about to exceed those of the largest corporate holder of the asset, MicroStrategy.

The ETF funds hold around 187,000 BTC as of Feb. 7, whereas MicroStrategy holds 190,000 coins after snapping up another 850 BTC in January, increasing its total holdings to a value of more than $8 billion.

#news #btc #etf #BlackRock

MicroStrategy buys $37M Bitcoin bringing holdings to 190,000 BTC

MicroStrategy, the largest publicly traded holder of Bitcoin, says it acquired an additional 850 BTC in January bringing its total holdings to 190,000 BTC — worth $8.1 billion.

In its Q4 2023 Feb. 6 earnings call, the business software firm’s chief financial officer, Andrew Kang, said it acquired 56,650 BTC throughout 2023 at an average price of $33,580.

Overall, MicroStrategy posted a net income of $89.1 million, compared with a loss of $249.7 million in the year prior. The company’s revenue decreased 6.1% to $124.5 million within the same time frame, according to a Feb. 6 earnings statement.

MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor said its 2023 performance could be attributed to investors recognizing the broader theme of a “digital transformation” of assets.

#news #btc #MicroStrategy

Bitcoin drives crypto ETP market flows as Grayscale sell-off slows

Digital asset investment products posted over $700 million in inflows during the week ending Feb. 2, reversing a prior week of outflows — due mainly to a flood of investors to Bitcoin products in the United States, according to alternative asset manager CoinShares.

Inflows into the global digital asset product market amounted to $708 million, with United States-listed products making $720 million of inflows in the week. Bitcoin products, including the newly launched spot Bitcoin ETFs, accounted for most digital asset product inflows at $703 million, according to the data.

The number is a reversal of outflows from the previous week, which totalled $499.7 million across all digital asset investment products.

The United States’ newly issued spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw $1.7 billion come in over the week, bringing total inflows since launch to $7.7 billion.

#news #etf #btc #defi

El Salvador initial polls show Nayib Bukele to win re-election

Pro-Bitcoiner Nayib Bukele is widely expected to win his second term as president, with early official voting data indicating his party has won 87% of the votes — though the final results are yet to be released.

Official results as of Feb. 5, 5:30 am UTC from the country’s electoral authority the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) show Bukele’s populist Nueva (New) Ideas party leads by over 1.1 million votes with 31.5% of the vote counted.

In total, New Ideas is closing in on 1.3 million votes, followed by just over 110,000 for the left wing Farabundo Martí Front (FMLN) led by Manuel Flores while nearly 97,000 votes have gone to the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) led by Joel Sánchez.

Earlier, CID Gallup reported exit polls showed Bukele’s party held 87% of the votes while Flores and Sanchez respectively held 7% and 4%. If Bukele maintains his lead he will be sworn in as president on a five-year term and serve until 2029.

In an X post, Bukele proclaimed victory before any official results were announced and said his own party’s data shows he had won the election with more than 85% of the votes and a minimum of 58 out of 60 deputies in the assembly.

A spokesman for the country’s National Bitcoin Office told Cointelegraph that it expects an even higher proportion of votes going to Bukele once the official results are out.

#news #btc #elSalvador

Cryptocurrency thrives in China against odds, report says

Crypto enthusiasts in China are more willing to invest heavily in cryptocurrency than their counterparts in Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

This is according to a December 2023 report by Vietnamese venture capital firm Kyros Ventures, with the assistance of 10 media agencies from China, Thailand, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. In the 5,268-participant survey, more than 70% of participants said cryptocurrencies accounted for more than half of their asset portfolio.

However, 33.3% of Chinese investors hold a large amount of stablecoins, placing them in second place to Vietnam, with 58.6% of its investors holding stablecoins. Except for Vietnam and China, most investors in other countries have reduced their holdings in stablecoins, indicating that they are more risk-averse with investments in crypto assets.

China is officially one of the world’s most challenging jurisdictions for cryptocurrencies. Beijing banned crypto trading in 2021, and authorities have detained, fined and jailed people working in the sector.

Despite the government agencies’ ban, the majority of investors in China choose to trade on centralized crypto exchanges (CEXs), according to the report. Thailand, in particular, has the lowest rate of stablecoin holders, at only 22%. However, China is set to amend its Anti-Money Laundering regulations to include cryptocurrency-related transactions.

According to the report, throughout 2023, self-research, crypto news, an community groups and key opinion leaders (KOLs) were the three main information channels preferred by many investors in the five countries. News media are preferred by more than 70% of Thai and Chinese investors.

#news #china #asia #btc #investment