The launch of the spot Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) in January 2024 marked a perfect start to the year for the cryptocurrency industry. These crypto investment products were expected to go the extra mile for the major cryptocurrency, attract more investors in the digital asset space.
BlackRock’s exchange-traded fund IBIT was, as expected, the leader of the pack. It broke records and attracted significant new capital week in and week out. In one such achievement, the Bitcoin ETF has now surpassed BlackRock’s gold fund in terms of net assets.
BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF Exceeds $33 Billion in Net Assets
As of Thursday, November 7, BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund with the ticker IBIT has net assets of nearly $33.2 billion. This figure places the Bitcoin ETF just above its gold counterpart (with ticker IAU), which has approximately $32.9 billion in net assets.
What makes this achievement even more impressive is the fact that BlackRock’s IBIT only just started trading in January 2024 – alongside ten other Bitcoin ETFs. Meanwhile, the gold fund of the asset manager had a twenty year head start as trading started back in January 2005.
ETF Store President Nate Geraci revealed this in a post on the X platform on Thursday, coinciding with the day IBIT returned to positive inflows with the largest capital inflow ever. According to data from SoSoValue, BlackRock’s exchange-traded Bitcoin fund recorded a massive net inflow of $1.12 billion.
This impressive one-day performance represents a significant turnaround after a string of negative outflows for the crypto fund. IBIT recorded cumulative outflows of $113 million on Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 November.
BlackRock’s IBIT also leads the US Bitcoin ETF market in terms of net assets; Grayscale’s GBTC and Fidelity come in second and third with $16.8 billion and $14.58 billion, respectively. The Ark & 21Shares ETF (with ticker ARKB) and the Bitwise fund (with ticker BITB) make up the top five.
Bitcoin price overview
Crypto enthusiasts will be looking forward to greater capital inflows for BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF as history suggests that the Bitcoin price correlates positively to such fund movements. As evidenced by Thursday’s price action, the major cryptocurrency successfully broke above 76,000 points.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price is above $76,500 after briefly breaking above $77,000 on Friday. According to CoinGecko data, the market leader is up more than 10% in the past week.
The price of Bitcoin approaching $77,000 on the daily timeframe | Source: BTCUSDT chart on TradingView
Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView