- BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) exhibited a 69-day unbroken chain of inflows heading to last Saturday’s halving.
- BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) net inflows are now at $15.42 billion.
- How will the incoming Chinese spot Bitcoin ETF players affect the market?
IBIT’s Inflows Streak
The halving on April 20 marked another era for Bitcoin. With the network’s algorithm triggering yet another level of scarcity in the world’s leading cryptocurrency by market cap, more investors are now very bullish on BTC’s potential to reach a new top anytime between this year and the next from the current $73,750.07 peak.
Alongside them are the spot Bitcoin ETF issuers in the US as they look to capitalize on BTC’s tighter supply, which could result in a new price discovery for the digital asset. BlackRock’s IBIT ETF is particularly enjoying an unprecedented success as it displayed 69 days of unbroken chain of inflows despite the outflows overpowering the market on most days of the week preceding the halving.
Last Friday, IBIT recorded $29.3 million in inflows to raise its issuer’s net inflows to $15.42 billion. The company credited the strong performance of its spot Bitcoin ETF, especially with institutional investors, to its strong branding, competitive fee, and strategic distribution.
With that, there’s anticipation that BlackRock’s exchange-traded product (ETP) would eventually surpass Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) in assets under management (AUM) under ETFs. In contrast to IBIT, GBTC has logged an alarming $16.73 billion net outflows since its ETF conversion on January 11.
Incoming Spot Bitcoin ETF Players Overseas
Elsewhere, the Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong (HK) reportedly greenlit several Chinese spot Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) ETFs last week but the regulator has yet to give an official announcement regarding the matter. Amid the silence of the agency on the subject, big institutional players like China Asset Management, Harvest Fund, Bosera, and HashKey have begun leaking tidbits of information regarding the approval of their ETF applications. The last two, however, only revealed conditional approval for their ETPs.
One of the new names that surfaced in this space is Hong Kong’s Victory Securities. According to Wu Blockchain on X, the issuer will charge 0.5% to 1% of the customer’s total transaction with a minimum fee set at $850. Meanwhile, secondary markets will be charged 0.15% for online transactions and 0.25% for phone transactions.
The fee structure of Victory Securities somehow gives us a glimpse of what is in store for spot crypto ETF investors in the region. From the looks of it, other players in the area will unlikely stray farther from these numbers.
HK Spot Bitcoin ETFs Downplayed by Bloomberg Analyst
For Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the Hong Kong spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs are setting up more bullish sentiment for the wider crypto market. However, he doused expectations that they would match or perform better than their US counterparts.
Balchunas explained that the HK ETF market is relatively small, with an estimated capitalization of $50 billion. He also criticized their limited access due to the crypto ban holding back investors from mainland China.
The analyst said the HK crypto ETFs would be lucky to even reach $500 million in inflows.