Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) recorded its lowest net outflow of $17.5 million for the first time since its conversion to a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Wednesday, according to Farside Investors data.
This follows a statement by Grayscale Investments CEO Michael Sonnenshein that the company’s fund is close to a point of “equilibrium” regarding its outflows.
GBTC Outflows Slow Down
According to data from Farside, GBTC experienced combined net outflows exceeding $450 million on Monday and Tuesday, contributing to over $16 billion in cumulative outflows in the past three months. However, these outflows slowed to $17.5 million on Wednesday compared to $154.9 million on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETF recorded net inflows of $76.3 million, BlackRock’s IBIT attracted $33.3 million, and Bitwise’s Bitcoin ETF had inflows amounting to $24.3 million. Additionally, Ark Invest’s ARKB witnessed $7.3 million of net inflows.
The U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, including Grayscale, collectively saw net inflows of $123.7 million. This marks an improvement after the ETFs had a day of cumulative net outflows on April 9, amounting to $19.4 million.
Sonnenshein mentioned yesterday that the expectation of reaching an equilibrium in outflows follows a period of significant capital flight driven by a combination of switch trades and settlements from bankruptcies like FTX.
Benjamin Stani, director of business development at Matrixport, commented that GBTC flows appear to have stabilized, with many forced sellers possibly exhausted. However, Stani cautioned that outflows could potentially increase again, given the volatility observed in weekly flows of ETFs since their approval. He emphasized the need for caution when interpreting this data point, as there have been periods of a slowdown in the past.
Grayscale’s Market Share Has Been Dropping
BlackRock’s IBIT fund reached $18.2 billion in assets under management (AUM) on Tuesday, just slightly behind Grayscale’s $23.2 billion. As its popularity grew, BlackRock slowly closed the gap between the two. Just two months ago, Grayscale’s fund had approximately $23.4 billion in AUM, while BlackRock’s stood at $4.4 billion.
Grayscale’s ETF initially launched with nearly $30 billion in AUM. However, according to Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, the declining AUM trend is partly due to Genesis selling GBTC shares.
Regarding trading volume, Grayscale’s fund has been losing market share, dropping from approximately 50% at the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs on January 11 to 23.5% on Tuesday.