Newly approved bitcoin ETFs saw more than $4.6 billion in volumes on the first day of trading, London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LSE:LON:LSEG) data confirmed.
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the largest of the bunch, clocked up more than $2.3 billion in volumes, while BlackRock’s newly minted iShares Bitcoin Trust saw over $1 billion.
According to Bloomberg, this makes GBTC the most heavily traded ETF debut of all time, although the net inflow figure was not yet known.
These substantial volumes underscore the amount of pent-up demand for stock exchange-listed investments that directly track bitcoin’s real-time price, especially after 10 years of heel-dragging by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Yet the successful debut failed to move the dial on the underlying asset, at least not in a way initially expected.
Bitcoin initially surged close to $49,000 in early Thursday trades, but the part was short lived. Come midnight, BTC/USDT had fallen back below $46,500, marking a 65-basis-point day-on-day loss.
The pair continued to creep lower this morning, with bitcoin swapping for $45,900 at the time of writing.
Perhaps a damp squib for anyone banking on an instant moonshot, but given bitcoin’s existing 150% year-on-year rally, a lot of the ETF hype was already baked into the market.
Nonetheless, ETF inflows are still expected to be a tailwind for bitcoin in the long run.
Bitcoin’s is up 4% week on week – Source: tradingview.com
Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency on the market, gained on bitcoin by adding 130 basis points on the ETH/USD pair on Thursday.
It subsequently underwhelmed in today’s Asia trading window by dipping 0.8% and, at the time of writing, was changing hands for $2,596.
The wider blue-chip altcoin space yielded no surprises, with depressed volumes leading to limp price movements.
Solana (SOL), Ripple (XRP) and Polkadot (DOT) dipped less than one percent overnight, while Cardano (ADA), Avalanche (AVAX) and Dogecoin (DOGE) moved higher by the same amount.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at $1.76 trillion, with bitcoin dominance at 52.4%.