By The newly listed BlackRock iShares Bitcoin ETF trading under the ticker symbol “IBIT” has overtaken the iShares Silver Trust reaching $10 billion in assets under management (AUM).
The sudden surge in Bitcoin has pushed the iShares Silver Trust launched on April 2006 and trading under the ticker symbol “SLV” has been pushed lower down on the leaderboard. The silver trust is another BlackRock-owned product and gives exposure to the day-to-day movement of the price of silver bullion. The SLV trust has approximately $9,787,865,530 AUM just shy of $10 billion.
Bitcoin ETFs are moving up the Commodity ETFs leaderboard.
Note the YTD performance difference of $IBIT $FBTC $ARKB $BITB vs. $GLD $IAU $SLV $GLDM $PDBC $SGOL $DBC $USO $UNG pic.twitter.com/fg3vl4AJTj
— HODL15Capital (@HODL15Capital) March 3, 2024
Bitcoin ETFs Driven by Excitement and Frenzy
Hector McNeil, co-CEO and the co-founder of HANetf, a firm which markets and distributes exchange-traded products, told Cryptonews, that it is unsurprising IBIT has overtaken the silver trust.
“The success of IBIT I think reflects how hot bitcoin is as an asset class driven by the excitement and frenzy around the US ETF approvals,” explains McNeil.
BlackRock is a global powerhouse, the world’s largest asset management, with $10 trillion in assets as of December 31. Unsurprisingly, the firm entering Bitcoin with a new Spot Bitcoin product has triggered another bull run.
“Tons of competition and masses of marketing dollars being spent. As long as the price momentum keeps going then I see the AUM rising. This is both down to Bitcoin price as well as inflows,” said McNeil.
Commenting on the IBIT ETF overtaking the iShares Silver Trust in terms of AUM, McNeil explains, “Precious metals have had a good price run over the last year but nowhere near the frenzy of Bitcoin so doesn’t surprise me it’s surpassing the silver trust.”
IBIT Overtakes GBTC Trust
On Thursday, Grayscale’s Bitcoin product trading under the ticker symbol “GBTC” faced a sluggish trading session, marked by net outflows nearing $600m. This day marked the second largest outflow since Jan. 11. Total GBTC outflows since Jan. 11 now amount to $8,406.3m.
“It’s great to witness from a capital markets perspective that [BlackRock] iShares has superseded and replaced Grayscale’s GBTC from being the main trading vehicle for Bitcoin,” Laurent Kssis, a crypto expert on trading and ETFs at CEC Capital told Cryptonews.
“We always said the GBTC product was substandard for institutional investors but the first one to make it on the secondary market through a loophole in the rules to admit products on OTC markets,” explains Kssis.
Taken Ten Years To Get Where We Are
Back in July 2013 the Winklevoss twins first filed for a Bitcoin ETF but this was rejected over and over again.
“It has taken 10 years after the filing of the S1 from the Winklevoss brothers to get where we are and we are still scratching the surface where many trading platforms are still holding off and deliberating from allowing their clients to trade the ETFs — it’s inevitable — and this will allow a second layer of investment yet not seen so far,” said Kssis.
Wall Street Remains Hungry for Crypto ETFs
On Wednesday, it emerged that Morgan Stanley is considering adding spot Bitcoin ETFs to its brokerage platform and is currently in the process of conducting due diligence, according to a CoinDesk report citing two sources familiar with the matter.
During press time Bitcoin was trading at around $63,755. Bitcoin’s price prediction remains a focal point for investors as Bitcoin is climbing to $63,800, an increase of nearly 3.25% on Monday. This surge reflects growing investor confidence and a keen eye on the Federal Reserve’s anticipated monetary policy adjustments.
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