BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF Grinds To A Halt, Records Longest Stretch Without Inflows

American multinational investment company, BlackRock has witnessed a significant lull in investments for its Spots Bitcoin ETF, iShare’s Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). With the ETF provider recording its longest period of zero flows, there may be possibilities that investor interest in Spot Bitcoin ETFs might be waning.  

BlackRock Sees Zero Bitcoin ETF Flows

Despite being the largest Spot Bitcoin ETF provider, BlackRock has surprisingly been met with zero inflow activity for approximately three days. From Wednesday, April 24 to Friday, April 27, BlackRock recorded 0.0 inflows, breaking its longest-record streak of 71 daily inflows. 

According to an X (formerly Twitter) post from Whale Panda, during the three days, the Spot Bitcoin ETFs of global asset management companies like Grayscale, Fidelity, and Bitwise recorded outflows worth millions of dollars. GBTC witnessed a total of $352.2 million outflows, while FBTC and BITB amassed approximately $25.4 million and $9.8 million outflows, respectively. 

At the time only a handful of Spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced inflows, including Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, ARKB, Franklin Templeton’s Bitcoin ETF, EZBC and Fidelity’s, accumulating total inflows of $9.6 million, $1.9 million, and $5.6 million, respectively. 

Following the temporary halt on IBIT’s inflows and the increase in outflows from other Spot Bitcoin ETFs, the price of Bitcoin witnessed a sharp decline. Over the past week, the world’s largest cryptocurrency recorded a whopping 6.29% decrease, and another 2.56% drop in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. These consistent declines have pushed Bitcoin’s price down further, to trade at $62,227, at the time of writing.

Are Investors Losing Interest In Bitcoin ETFs?

Since its Spot Bitcoin ETF launch, BlackRock has recorded a net inflow of over $13 billion. The surge in demand for IBIT has positioned it among the top Spot Bitcoin ETF providers and a key ETF player within the financial industry.  

The recent drop in IBIT’s inflows has sparked possibilities of diminishing interest in Spot Bitcoin ETFs. For most, the approval and launch of Spot Bitcoin ETFs was a major catalyst for Bitcoin’s rise to new all-time highs in March 2024. 

A continuous influx of capital from Soot Bitcoin ETF has been observed to drive the price of Bitcoin to new levels. Conversely, a decline in inflows has instigated a significant price drop for Bitcoin.

Bloomberg analyst, James Seyffart, as a prominent ETF expert has unraveled the mystery behind the unusual halt in BlackRock’s Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows. Seyffart explained that it was common for the vast majority of ETFs to experience periods of zero flows. He backed up his claim by pointing out that out of the 3,500 ETFs within the United States, 2,903 had also witnessed zero flows similar to IBIT. 

BTC price at $62,200 | Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview.com

Featured image from Coinpedia, chart from Tradingview.com