NEW YORK, February 26, 2024 — BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), saw record trading volumes on Monday, reflecting continued strong interest in such funds. By 3:30 p.m. ET, over 42 million shares of IBIT, valued at approximately $1.3 billion, had been traded.

The $1.1 billion in trading volume recorded for IBIT marked the highest daily total since the fund’s launch over six weeks ago, surpassing its previous record of around $1 billion set on its first trading day, January 11, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted the significance of Monday’s trading volumes, describing them as an “insane number” for a newly launched ETF amid a competitive landscape.

Additionally, the nine U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, excluding the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), collectively achieved a record $2.4 billion in trading volumes on Monday, Balchunas noted. The BlackRock Bitcoin fund ranked 11th among ETFs by trading volume, trailing the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) and surpassing the State Street Global Advisors’ Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) at that time.

With nearly $7 billion in assets, IBIT is the second-largest spot Bitcoin fund after GBTC, which began with approximately $28 billion in assets upon its ETF conversion. Despite experiencing a rare day of net outflows on February 21, the segment’s funds saw net inflows of nearly $600 million during the previous week’s four days of trading, according to BitMEX Research.

Overall, net inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin funds have reached about $5.5 billion. Trading volumes for competing Bitcoin ETFs from Bitwise, WisdomTree, and VanEck also spiked last week. Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan noted an increase in “sales wins” for BITW from money managers as Bitcoin’s price has rallied.

As of 3:30 p.m. ET on Monday, Bitcoin’s price was above $54,300, up nearly 5% from the previous day. Industry experts anticipate that net inflows into Bitcoin ETFs will rise significantly in the coming months as more wealth managers begin to allocate client capital to these products.