- The SEC approved Bitcoin ETFs on January 10, 2024.
- Bitcoin ETFs are the most successful launch in history with $107 billion in AUM.
- Among 11 providers, BlackRock is the unequivocal winner.
- Experts say 2025 will be even better.
What a debut.
In an incredible freshman year, spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds raked in $107 billion in the most successful ETF launch in history — and experts say it’s only the beginning.
Since approval on January 10, 2024, the 11 providers captured 6% of Bitcoin’s total supply.
US-based Bitcoin ETFs secured $35 billion in total inflows in their first year and are projected to double that figure in 2025, according to analysts at research firm Bernstein.
Their popularity also strengthens crypto’s legitimacy as an asset class, especially among previously sceptical Wall Street investors. Fifty-six percent of financial advisors are now inclined to allocate funds to crypto, according to Bitwise.
At the same time, ETFs paved the way for the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs last summer. More will likely follow.
Multiple fund managers have applied for Solana and XRP ETFs. Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart are also optimistic about Litecoin and Hedera ETFs in the near future.
“We expect a wave of cryptocurrency ETFs next year, albeit not all at once,” said Balchunas as 2024 ended.
Eleven years after the Winklevoss twins first applied for a spot Bitcoin ETF, the asset’s demand has proven the naysayers wrong.
Bountiful 2025 ahead
Last year was just the start, say analysts.
Institutional ownership of Bitcoin ETFs will rise to 40%, a near-double uptick than what it registered in 2024, said Bernstein in a January 6 note. The accelerated institutional adoption will supercharge the inflows in 2025.
Financial analytics firm Coalition Greenwich share their bullishness, and predicts the ETF influence will get even bigger in 2025.
“Asset managers and owners have now discovered that ETFs are an incredible distribution tool for almost everything,” said the analysts at Coalition Greenwich.
BlackRock’s big win
Out of the 740 ETFs launched in 2024, BlackRock’s IBIT emerged as the top performer, amassing over $53 billion in assets within a year.
“IBIT’s growth is unprecedented,” said Seyffart in December. “It’s the fastest ETF to reach most milestones, faster than any other ETF in any asset class.”
Bitcoin ETFs took in $10 billion in the first three days of trading, breaking the record set by gold, which took nearly three years to secure that amount. And while the gold ETF has existed for more than two decades, BlackRock investors now hold more in its Bitcoin ETF with just one year of life, according to Bloomberg.
“We have only seen the very beginnings of institutional inflows into the ETFs and portfolio allocations to the crypto asset class,” Katalin Tischhauser, head of investment research at Sygnum, told DL News.
Pedro Solimano is a Markets Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at psolimano@dlnews.com.