BlackRock’s Spot Bitcoin ETF Sees First Outflows Amid BTC Price Slump

The spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States have recently observed a noteworthy trend, marked by a consecutive six-day period of outflows. Notably, BlackRock’s IBIT ETF encountered its first instance of outflows just yesterday.

This development coincides with bitcoin navigating through its most challenging month since the aftermath of the 2022 FTX collapse, registering a notable decline of 11% over this week.

Record Breaking Outflows and Market Downturn

According to data from Farside Investors, BlackRock’s Bitcoin fund saw its first $36.9 million outflow on May 1st, with the nine other ETFs collectively recording a $526.8 million outflow on the same day.

The largest outflow for the day was observed in the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which saw $191.1 million in net outflows. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) followed closely with an outflow of $167.4 million.

ARK 21Shares and Franklin Bitcoin ETFs saw respective outflows of $98.1 million and $13.4 million, contributing to the largest single outflow day for U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs.

In the broader market context, bitcoin’s price is down by more than 10% this week, as CoinGecko data indicates. Following Tuesday’s decline, BTC and the broader cryptocurrency market are set to break their seven-month streak of gains, marking their most significant monthly decline since November 2022, when the crypto exchange FTX collapsed.

Bitcoin had plummeted by over 16% by the end of April, while Ethereum saw an 18% decrease in value. Smaller cryptocurrencies faced even higher declines, with popular altcoins like SOL, Dogecoin (DOGE), and Avalanche (AVAX) experiencing drops ranging from 35% to 40% throughout April.

Overall, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has shrunk by nearly 18%, marking its biggest decline since June 2022. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $57,600 while most alts have performed better.

Analysts Weigh In

Despite these challenges, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart maintains that spot Bitcoin ETFs are “operating smoothly across the board,” emphasizing that inflows and outflows are part of the ETF lifecycle.

Should add — these ETFs are operating smoothly across the board. Inflows and outflows are part of the norm in the life of an ETF.

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) May 2, 2024

Echoing this sentiment, ETF Store president Nate Geraci emphasized that such fluctuations are normal for ETFs.

He compared it with the outflows experienced by traditional assets like gold ETFs, pointing out that the metal’s prices have surged by 16% year-to-date despite significant outflows. This year, the iShares Gold ETF and SPDR Gold ETFs have seen outflows of $1 billion and $3 billion, respectively.