GBTC net outflows reach $10 billion two months after ETF conversion

Investor assets that have exited Grayscale Investments’ spot bitcoin ETF surpassed $10 billion on Thursday while demand for several competing offerings remains strong.

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) bled $375 million on Thursday, according to BitMEX Research data — bringing its total net outflows to more than $10.2 billion since converting to an ETF on Jan. 11. 

GBTC has been an outlier within the 10-fund US spot bitcoin ETF segment given its 1.5% fee that is significantly higher than competitors. 

BlackRock’s fast-growing iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), for example, each carry fees of 0.25%.

While IBIT has notched $9.7 billion of net inflows after nearly two months of trading, assets flowing into FBTC hit $6 billion Thursday. 

Net inflows into US spot bitcoin ETF — even with GBTC’s outflows weighing down the category — sit at nearly $9.4 billion to date. 

Though GBTC has seen net outflows on every trading day since Jan. 11, those negative flows dipped to a low of $22 million on Feb. 26. 

Sumit Roy, senior analyst at ETF.com, told Blockworks at the time that the initial selling by arbitrageurs and those wanting to move to cheaper funds was “largely over.”

But GBTC outflows picked up again, ballooning to nearly $600 million on Feb. 29. The fund’s average daily net outflows during this week’s first four days amount to $338 million, BitMEX Research data indicates.

Some industry watchers in X posts last week speculated that the outflows uptick could be driven in part by bankrupt lender Genesis, which was granted approval earlier this month to offload roughly $1.6 billion worth of GBTC shares . A Genesis spokesperson did not return a request for comment. 

Despite the more than $10 billion of net outflows over the last two months, GBTC’s assets under management have dipped only marginally over that span — from about $28 billion to $27 billion — given BTC’s price jump in recent weeks.

BTC reached an all-time high just above $69,000 on Tuesday before reverting toward $60,000 later that day. 

The asset’s price was at about $67,400 at 6 a.m. ET Friday — up more than 8% from a week ago.