US Spot Bitcoin ETFs Hold $27B in BTC

How Much Assets Have US Spot Bitcoin ETFs Amassed?

Spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange traded funds (ETFs) in the US hold $27.0 billion in BTC as of January 17. The majority of assets under management (AUM) is held by the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), with $25.3 billion. This accounts for 93.4% of all BTC held in US spot Bitcoin ETFs. However, it should be noted that GBTC was started in 2013, and thus has had a 10-year headstart from the new ETFs. 

The second largest spot BTC ETF is BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which has now accumulated $698.1 million in BTC. However, its market share of 2.6% still pales in comparison to GBTC. 

Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) is the third largest, with $523.0 million in AUM, or 1.93% market share. 

Meanwhile, the WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust (BTCW) is currently the smallest spot BTC ETF in the US, with $3.2 million in AUM. 

How Much Bitcoin Is Held in ETFs?

Approximately 632k BTC is held in US spot ETFs as of January 17. This accounts for ~3.2% of all BTC in circulation, or ~3.0% of the total supply of BTC (21.0 million). 

Grayscale holds the largest amount of BTC at ~591.1k, followed by BlackRock (IBIT) with 16.3k, and Fidelity (FBTC) with 12.2k. 

Grayscale Sees $1.3B in Outflows Since Converting to ETF

GBTC recently gained approval to convert its trust to an ETF. Previously as a trust, investors could not redeem shares in it for BTC, but could only do on the secondary market at a premium or discount to net asset value (NAV).

With its conversion to a spot ETF, Grayscale has been experiencing outflows, as investors sell their GBTC to enter other BTC ETFs or take profit now that the discount to its (NAV) has closed. Since its conversion to a spot ETF on January 11, GBTC has seen outflows amounting to over $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, the nine newly minted ETF’s have accumulated over $1.8 billion in assets.

One reason for large outflows from GBTC is the high management fees. Other ETF providers charge between 0.12% and 0.49%, while GBTC charges 1.5%. With this in mind, it is expected that GBTC will continue to see outflows over time, as investors move their capital to providers with lower fees. 

Methodology

The study examined Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US, based on Bloomberg, as of January 17, 2024. 

This study is for illustrative and informational purposes only, and is not financial advice. Always do your own research and be careful when putting your money into any crypto or financial asset.

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Curious to find out more about our previous research studies & statistics? Check out this one we did on the biggest Bitcoin ETFs in the world.