The price has more than doubled since the batch of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) began trading in the United States in January.
Demand for these regulated vehicles was so intense that the original cryptocurrency hit a new all-time high, fueled by a rush of Bitcoin purchases.
However, it looks like the market might have gotten a little ahead of the hype, according to Kaiko Research, as investors dumped crypto ETFs at the fastest pace last week.
Both ETF inflows and Bitcoin (BTC) rally slowed in early April. Last week, BlackRock's (NYSE:) iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) recorded its first daily outflow of $37 million, breaking a 71-day streak of consecutive inflows.
On Friday, however, the situation seemed to change, with strong inflows into several ETFs, including Grayscale's GBTC. Additionally, BlackRock's IBIT fund is currently approaching parity with GBTC in terms of holdings. Kaiko analysts attribute this rebound in ETF inflows to US employment data, which sparked speculation about interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Globally, competition among ETFs is intensifying. Last week, three mainland Chinese asset managers (Bosera Asset Management, Harvest Global Investments and China Asset Management) launched Bitcoin (BTC) and (ETH) spot ETFs in Hong Kong.
The first day of trading saw a combined volume of $12.7 million in the Hong Kong dollar, US dollar and US dollar trading pairs.
While this volume is modest compared to the $4.6 billion traded by US spot ETFs at their launch, it highlights the relatively smaller scale of the Hong Kong ETF market.
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“Interestingly, the ChinaAMC Bitcoin ETF recorded the highest volume despite its highest fee of 99 basis points. ETH ETFs attracted 23% of the total first day volume, while BTC represented the majority at 77%,” Kaiko's note reads.
In the Asia-Pacific region, demand for cryptocurrency exposure remains strong. According to recent mandatory 13F filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a Hong Kong-based asset manager is the largest holder of BlackRock's IBIT fund.
Although inflows into spot crypto ETFs have slowed, institutional interest in tokenizing real-world assets (RWA) is gaining traction. Last week, BlackRock's BUIDL fund crossed the $300 million mark, surpassing Franklin Templeton's BENJI to become the largest tokenized US Treasury bond fund.
This growth was driven by Ondo Finance, which transferred $95 million to the BlackRock fund.
