Spot bitcoin ETF trading volumes surpass $2.6B

BlackRock, Grayscale and Fidelity lead the charge

January 11, 2024 12:44 pm

Artwork by Crystal Le

The first day of trading for the 10 approved spot bitcoin ETFs started with a bang, and the momentum seems to be holding.

As of 12 pm ET, total volumes surpassed $2.6 billion, according to data from the TIE terminal.

Grayscale and BlackRock lead the pack

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and Grayscale led trade volume in early afternoon trading, with roughly 26 million shares in BlackRock’s fund traded since the ETF launched Thursday morning.

Read more: Bitcoin ETF tracker

Newsletter

Subscribe to Blockworks Daily

Yahoo Finance data shows roughly 33 million shares of Grayscale’s recently converted ETF have traded since this morning.

Fidelity rounded out the top three ETFs with volume sitting at 11 million shares traded.

After briefly topping $49,000 Thursday, the price of bitcoin (BTC) settled around $46,000. According to data from CoinGecko, the 24-hour trading volume for bitcoin hit $55 billion.

The spot bitcoin ETFs surpassed $1 billion in trade volume within the first 30 minutes of trading after the bell.

On Wednesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved the 11 spot bitcoin ETFs. After making the S-1s effective, the ETFs were cleared to start trading Thursday morning.

So far the volumes have far outpaced the volumes seen by the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), which launched back in October 2021.

The fund’s first trading day saw roughly $950 million in reading volume, reaching $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) in the following days.

Editor’s note: Following the publication of this story, Hashdex revealed that — while a rule change to list Hashdex’s bitcoin futures fund as a spot product was approved — its registration statement to convert the fund is still under SEC review.

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Newsletter

Blockworks Daily

Upcoming Events

Digital Asset Summit 2025

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

learn more

recent research

Research

Analyst Takes: Post-Election Insights

With the recent election, it’s clear that there will be a meaningful shift in crypto regulations and legislation. Trump is likely as pro-crypto as a president can be. He launched (multiple) of his own NFT collections and is launching an Aave wrapper called World Liberty Fi. He has also spoken out and mentioned that he wants to make the United States "the crypto capital of the planet" and transform it into the "Bitcoin superpower of the world". He proposed creating a strategic national Bitcoin stockpile alongside support from Senator Cynthia Lummis, promising to retain 100% of all Bitcoin held by the U.S. government. More importantly, we’re likely to see deregulation across the board in a lot of industries, with crypto being one of them - as Trump has committed to keeping the crypto market largely unregulated. Crypto, DeFi in particular, has historically been knee-capped by overreaching and hostile governmental agencies and regulation by enforcement, as evidenced by the plethora of Wells notices and lawsuits over the past few years. With Donald Trump winning the presidency, Republicans taking control of the Senate, and being on the verge of securing the House, we think it’s likely that crypto realizes positive regulatory clarity. Below, you can find our analysts’ takes:

by Boccaccio