Bitcoin investment vehicles amass over 1 million BTC, worth around $67 billion

Global bitcoin investment vehicles, including recently launched spot exchange-traded funds in the U.S., now manage more than one million BTC +2.83% — currently valued at around $67 billion — underscoring the growing interest of crypto in investment portfolios.

The majority, constituting over 83% of those figures, is attributed to U.S. spot and futures bitcoin ETFs, according to crypto research firm K33. Europe and Canada follow the U.S. as the second and third largest markets for bitcoin investment vehicles, respectively. Collectively, these vehicles manage 1,008,436 BTC or 5.13% of bitcoin's circulating supply as of Mar. 4, K33 said.

'Monumental threshold'

"Crossing one million bitcoins under management in investment vehicles is a monumental threshold," Vetle Lunde, senior analyst at K33, told The Block. "These vehicles have shaken up the bitcoin market structure considerably. A few years ago, spot exchanges held 20% of the circulating supply; now, this figure has fallen to 11%, with ETFs/ETPs, wrapped bitcoin, and a developing derivatives market eating away market share."

The push beyond one million BTC in investment vehicles "should be an eye-opener for OG bitcoiners that ETFs have become a significant factor in bitcoin's price discovery," Lunde added.

 

 

Spot bitcoin ETFs

Of the more than 1 million BTC, nearly 700,000 BTC are under management solely by the recently launched spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S., according to Glassnode data.

Since debuting in January of this year, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs are already in a race to beat gold ETFs, which have been operational since 2004. The combined assets under management of U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have reached over $52.5 billion as of Mar. 4, according to BitMEX Research data , while gold ETFs boast a total AUM of over $100 billion.

As for flows, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have seen net inflows totaling $7.9 billion since their launch on Jan. 11, per BitMEX data.

On Mar. 4, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows worth over $562 million, with Fidelity's FBTC fund itself contributing a record inflow of over $404 million, according to BitMEX data. Meanwhile, bitcoin ETFs from Invesco, VanEck, and Wisdom Tree experienced outflows yesterday.

Overall, BlackRock and Fidelity continue to dominate the spot bitcoin ETFs space, with their combined AUM of over $19 billion as of Mar. 4, per BitMEX data.