- Bitcoin ETFs have surpassed 1 million BTC in total holdings
- On its 16th anniversary, the cryptocurrency depreciated on the price charts
Less than a year post-launch, U.S. Bitcoin [BTC] ETFs have collectively accumulated over 1 million BTC. This is significant as just recently, Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, had predicted that the ETFs could surpass the holdings of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator – Satoshi Nakamoto. At the time, he had projected that this would happen by mid-December.
However, BlackRock’s single-day purchase of 12,127 BTC, according to Lookonchain, has hastened the timeline. Balchunas reacted to this massive accumulation on X, stating,
“At this rate, they’ll pass Satoshi in less than two weeks. Altho they can’t keep up this Joey Chestnut-level pace, can they?”
At press time, BlackRock held 429,185 BTC, valued at approximately $30.8 billion.
Combined, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs now manage assets totaling $70.86 billion, representing 5.12% of Bitcoin’s market cap. This, according to data from Soso Value.
For context, Nakamoto holds an estimated 1.1 million BTC, currently worth $76 billion.
Are ETF inflows slowing down?
Previously, AMBCrypto reported that on 30 October, BlackRock’s IBIT marked its largest single-day inflow since January. This surge in investment followed a trend of daily triple-digit total net inflows since 23 October.
Source: Soso Value
However, daily total net inflows dipped to $32.14 million on 31 October. Moreover, only IBIT and the CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund ETF (BRRR) brought in $318.80 million and $1.89 million, respectively.
Other ETFs saw either outflows or no inflows at all. Interestingly, this drop coincided with the king coin losing its standing over the $70,000-level.
Despite this decline, however, Balchunas revealed that IBIT managed to attract more cash than the total of 13,227 ETFs worldwide over the past week. He emphasized that this achievement is particularly significant for an ETF that is still under a year old.
Source: Eric Balchunas/X
Execs weigh in
IBIT’s remarkable performance didn’t go unnoticed by industry experts. Nate Geraci, President of the ETF Store, shared his perspective on X:
“This thing is turning into a $$$ vacuum cleaner.”
Geraci highlighted that BTC ETFs’ $70 billion in assets was more than 50% of the $130 billion held by gold ETFs since 2004—All within just 10 months of their 2024 launch.
Quinten Francois, Co-founder of WeRate, echoed this sentiment, stating,
“Bitcoin ETFs had more inflows in the last 2 days than the Gold ETF took in during its entire first year.”
Bitcoin turns 16
Meanwhile, the Uptober rally came to an end with BTC’s 16th anniversary, marking the day Nakamoto released the nine-page whitepaper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” This milestone laid the foundation for a decentralized digital currency and the cryptocurrency era.
Interestingly, on its anniversary, Bitcoin dipped below the $70,000-mark. At press time, it was valued at $69,821, down by 3.33% over the last 24 hours.
While the downturn may have disappointed some, it also poses an intriguing question – Could this be an opportunity for institutional investors to “buy the dip” and takeover Nakamoto sooner than expected?
Such a move would accelerate the shift towards institutional dominance in a space Nakamoto originally envisioned as decentralized.
