Bitcoin ETF from BlackRock Records First Loss Since May – Reason for Alarm?
BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has encountered over $13 million in net outflows, marking the first instance since May that the investment vehicle has seen more funds leaving than entering. The Ishares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), the largest spot Bitcoin ETF by total assets, recorded net outflows of approximately $13.5 million on Thursday, as per data from investment management firm Farside Investors. This occurrence represents only the second time Blackrock’s Bitcoin fund has observed negative outflows since its inception in January.
Investors collectively withdrew around $71,800 from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs on Thursday, marking the third consecutive day of negative outflows for these funds, according to Farside data. Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF experienced a loss of approximately $22.7 million on the same day, while Fidelity’s fund saw $31.1 million in outflows, as indicated by Farside data. Additionally, Bitwise’s BITB recorded a loss of about $8.1 million.
Despite the concerning trend of investor withdrawals from spot Bitcoin ETFs, analysts suggest there is no immediate cause for alarm. Glassnode analyst Brett Singer mentioned, “There isn’t too much concern here. They’ve still had very consistent growth and the amount pulled out seems negligible.”
The recent days’ trend of investor withdrawals from spot Bitcoin ETFs coincided with Bitcoin’s price dropping below a crucial support level of $58,000 earlier in the week. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $59,200, as per CoinGecko data. Bitcoin’s price has seen an approximately 11% decline over the past month, notwithstanding its recovery from a flash crash in early August that briefly pushed the token’s value below $50,000. Moreover, BTC is currently down nearly 20% from its all-time high of $73,737 in March, according to CoinGecko.
