Spot bitcoin ETF volumes eclipse $4.5B on first day of trading

BlackRock’s IBIT surpassed $1 billion in volume right before the close

share

The first spot bitcoin ETFs in the US saw roughly $4.5 billion in day-one trading volumes, according to Yahoo Finance data. 

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) — cleared to convert to an ETF Wednesday — accounted for roughly half the volumes, while a new fund by BlackRock saw roughly a quarter of the volumes.

The high trading figures closed out a day that started quickly, as 10 such funds saw more than $1 billion in trade volume in their first 30 minutes of trading Thursday. The listings came just hours after the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved a swathe of spot bitcoin ETFs in a milestone regulatory decision.

Read more: Bitcoin ETF Tracker

Hashdex revealed in a late afternoon press release that while a rule change to list its bitcoin futures fund as a spot product was approved, its registration statement to convert the fund is still under SEC review

“At a later date, the fund will change its name and change its investment strategy to permit spot bitcoin in its portfolio,” the release stated. 

A spokesperson for the firm declined to comment further.

Read more: As spot bitcoin ETF volumes soar, Vanguard is blocking such trades

The Grayscale and BlackRock ETFs led the pack with roughly 56 million and 38 million shares traded, respectively, Yahoo Finance data shows.

GBTC finished the day with about $2.3 billion in trade volume, while BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) crossed $1 billion in volume by the day’s end.

“Easily the biggest Day One splash in ETF history,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Balchunas said in an X post.

IBIT’s day-one trading volumes were similar to those seen by the first bitcoin futures ETF — the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) — which saw about $950 million in volume on Oct. 19, 2021. BITO, however, did not have competing products launch on the same day.

“Although it’s still early to draw definitive conclusions, this high volume suggests a substantial inflow of investor capital into the spot-based Bitcoin ETFs,” CoinShares research head James Butterfill told Blockworks. “The market price impact on the first day was moderate, which we attribute to the unwinding of futures positions in response to this significant event for the asset class.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 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.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

The Stripe-acquired firm has big plans for a streamlined, multi-wallet future

article-image

Both founders of the former crypto lender have now landed in new crypto industry roles

article-image

Bitcoin’s recent peak is a victory lap for curvers left and right

article-image

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo says institutions are eager to get exposure to tokenization

article-image

Trade isn’t war and prosperity isn’t a contest