BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF Could Attract a Record $3B Inflow in First Trading Day: CF Benchmarks

Wednesday’s historic decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. might fuel another historic event: the largest first-day inflow of funds into a specific ETF.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), the spot offering from TradFi giant BlackRock, could end the first trading day with as much as a record $3 billion in inflows, according to cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks, a subsidiary of crypto exchange Kraken that provides indexes for six of the newly launched ETFs, including BlackRock’s.

“IBIT is on course to make ETF history today,” CF Benchmarks CEO Sui Chung told CoinDesk. “During the first 30mins of trading, the product attracted $400m in inflows. This means it could well be up to as much as $3 billion in AUM by the time of the closing bell.” That would be the largest debut in ETF history.

As of 10:15 a.m. ET (15:15 UTC) on Thursday, Grayscale and BlackRock’s bitcoin spot ETFs were leading in terms of volume, according to BitMex Research.

“This speaks to the level of hitherto untapped demand from investors – who can’t or won’t custody physical bitcoin – to gain bitcoin ownership through a regulated financial product,” Chung said.

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Spot bitcoin ETFs are a significant milestone for the crypto industry as they let virtually any investor gain exposure to the largest digital asset and open a gateway to step into the sector without needing to go through a crypto exchange.

“The ETF will most likely create more demand which will therefore lead market makers to assign more capital to support that liquidity. Crypto market liquidity still hasn’t fully recovered from the FTX crash in November 2022. This could therefore benefit the entire crypto ecosystem, particularly as it starts to attract the attention of this new group of investors,” Chung said.