There’s no stopping the US Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with January shaping up to be a very good month for these funds.
Last Friday and this Monday saw a combined $1.98 billion flow into the ETFs, with Fidelity’s FBTC overtaking BlackRock’s IBIT on both days. While IBIT took in a combined $462 million on both trading days, FBTC managed a net inflow of $727 million.
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Although data for the most recent US trading day (Tuesday) is only partially available, it looks like the funds took some profits when BTC re-tested the $100k mark earlier in the week. The OG crypto has since fallen below that mark, currently trading for $96,500.
Excluding data from BlackRock, the ETFs saw net outflows of just over half a billion on Tuesday. Nevertheless, combined they now hold 1,138,438 Bitcoin, or 5.421% of the total BTC supply.
US Spot Bitcoin holdings. Source: BiTBO/The Block
According to Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas, the US Bitcoin ETFs are now on the way to their second “Nakamoto”. Balchunas said that’s “an infinity stone in Avengers”, giving special powers:
“If someone gets six they control universe. I don’t make the rules.”
With his unusual reference, the analyst took a playful jab at MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, who had described a Bitcoin holding of 1.1 million coins as a “Nakamoto”. Enigmatic founder Satoshi Nakamoto is said to have 1.1 million BTC, one of the largest holdings, and clearly something Saylor sees as a reference point.
In any case, Balchunas admitted that the US funds are now just 4% on the way to their second Nakamoto, after adding another “billy”, on Monday – and subsequently losing half on Tuesday.
No Bitcoin Could Be Riskier Than Holding Some
Jokes aside, adding BTC in the form of an ETF to a portfolio, often an institutional one, is becoming something of a theme this cycle.
So much so that Fidelity Digital Assets said it could be riskier not to invest in Bitcoin (whether in an ETF or physical BTC) than to do so.
In a recent research report, Fidelity Digital Assets analyst Matt Hogan said that they expect nations, their treasuries and central banks, as well as sovereign wealth funds, to “establish strategic positions in Bitcoin”.