BlackRock’s IBIT spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund reached $15 billion in total inflows yesterday — exactly three months after it began trading on Jan. 11.
“IBIT is up over 50% and has taken in $15 billion in new cash in three months; both of those numbers are double any other BlackRock ETF, and they have 421 of them,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said on Thursday. “That is about as hot as the iron gets.”
BlackRock’s IBIT dominated yesterday’s inflows for the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs, adding $192.1 million to overpower $124.9 million in outflows from Grayscale’s higher-fee GBTC fund, according to CoinGlass data.
Bitwise’s BITB witnessed inflows of $11.1 million on Thursday, with Valkyrie’s BRRR and Fidelity’s FBTC bringing in $8.4 million and $4.6 million, respectively.
The remaining funds saw zero flows yesterday, with daily net inflows coming in at $91.3 million. Total net flows for the spot bitcoin ETFs now stand at $12.9 billion. However, overall flows for the spot bitcoin ETFs have slowed since peaking at a net daily inflow of $1.05 billion on March 12, as bitcoin approached its latest all-time high of $73,836, according to The Block’s data dashboard.
BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF inflow milestone comes amid a renewed advertising spree for the product as the battle for attention heats up. “iShares going all-in on spot bitcoin ETF ads. I count seven banner ads just scrolling the Bloomberg home page,” The ETF Store President Nate Geraci said. “Remember, we’re only three months in here. [The] marketing war is still just getting started.”
Meanwhile, spot bitcoin ETF trading volume remained steady on Thursday at $2.5 billion, again led by IBIT, generating $1.1 billion in trading. However, daily volume declined after reaching a record $9.9 billion on March 5, as bitcoin first broke past its prior cycle peak of around $69,000.
Given the fluctuations in bitcoin’s price, BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF already reached $15 billion in assets under management on March 12 and is now closing in on $20 billion in AUM.
BlackRock’s IBIT closes in on $20 billion in AUM as it enters ETF top 100
In bitcoin terms, BlackRock’s IBIT fund now manages more than 266,000 
BTC
+0.46%
($18.9 billion) in assets, according to its latest disclosure, which excludes yesterday’s inflows.
“iShares Bitcoin ETF is now in top 100 of *all* ETFs by assets,” Geraci said. “That’s out of nearly 3,500 ETFs. [It] did this in three months.”
Fidelity’s FBTC has surpassed 151,000 BTC ($10.7 billion) in assets, while Ark Invest 21 Shares’ ARKB has amassed over 43,000 BTC ($3 billion) in assets, per CoinGlass.
The newborn nine spot bitcoin ETFs — excluding Grayscale’s converted GBTC fund — now exceed 524,000 BTC in assets ($37 billion) in total.
Meanwhile, the assets underlying GBTC have dropped by 49% to just under 316,000 BTC ($22 billion) from around 619,000 BTC since the spot bitcoin ETFs began trading.
GBTC bitcoin holdings. Image: CoinGlass.
Bitcoin is currently trading for $70,774, according to The Block’s price page. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap has traded flat over the last 24 hours but has gained 5% over the past month and is up 67% year-to-date.
BTC/USD price chart. Image: The Block/TradingView.
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