BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), experienced a significant surge in trading volume and inflows on October 29th, 2024, as Bitcoin’s price rallied towards its all-time high.
The ETF recorded a staggering $642.9 million in inflows, marking its largest single-day inflow since March 12th of that year. This influx pushed the total net inflow for all Bitcoin ETFs to $870.1 million, the highest level since June 4th.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that this was also the ETF’s largest trading volume day in six months, with $3.3 billion traded. While volume spikes typically occur during market downturns, Balchunas suggested that the recent surge was likely due to Bitcoin’s price rally, anticipating further inflows in the coming days.
Since its launch in January 2023, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF has attracted nearly $25 billion in total net inflows. This impressive figure positions it as the fourth-largest ETF in terms of lifetime inflows among the nearly 2,100 ETFs launched in the past five years.
The rally was not limited to BlackRock’s ETF. Other major Bitcoin ETFs, such as the Fidelity Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) and the Bitwise BITB fund, also experienced significant inflows on October 29th. The FBTC saw $133.9 million in inflows, while the BITB fund attracted $52.5 million. Smaller inflows were observed for Ark 21Shares, VanEck, and Grayscale’s mini Bitcoin Trust (BTC), while Grayscale’s GBTC fund saw a modest outflow.
As Bitcoin’s price approached its all-time high of $73,562 on October 29th, it briefly dipped to $72,500 but remained up 3.5% for the day, just 1.7% away from its previous peak. This surge in price and institutional interest suggests that a new all-time high for Bitcoin may be imminent.
In contrast to Bitcoin’s strong performance, many high-cap altcoins, including Ethereum, Solana, and XRP, experienced little to no movement over the past 24 hours, indicating a potential divergence in market sentiment.