Crypto asset manager Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF saw outflows of Bitcoin worth over $640 million on March 18, which was the day with the highest outflows for the fund since it was converted to a spot ETF on January 11. Even so, whales and sharks believe it’s the time to buy Bitcoin now.
Grayscale saw outflows of $642.5 million yesterday, leading media reported. Poor performance was not unique to the fund. While other ETFs saw some inflows, they were among the lowest in history. Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF, which is the second-biggest ETF, saw inflows of just $5.9 million, the lowest amount in history, Cointelegraph wrote, citing data from Farside Investors.
Net market outflow was $154M for the day
The total net market outflow for spot Bitcoin ETFs was $154.3 million. iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) did quite well, recording the highest inflow at $451.5 million. The other ETFs had an inflow of around $36.7 million.
Optimism remains
Despite the fading bull run, some analysts remain optimistic about Bitcoin ETF results and reasons to buy Bitcoin moving forward. Carlson Group VP Grant Englebart told Bloomberg TV that few of his investment company’s advisers’ clients had invested in Bitcoin ETFs. Of all the allocations to these funds, the average amount invested was just 3.5% of the total.
These comments indicate that few early adopters are making significant allocations to Bitcoin ETFs, which is more or less what Bitcoin ETF fund issuers have been saying. These few investors have already bought Bitcoin.
Financial expert Eric Balchunas, quoted by Cointelegraph, said:
“Advisers are not soliciting the rest of their clients yet, and all the flows are from inbound traffic.”
He hinted that inflows to Bitcoin ETFs might keep gathering momentum in the future. In other words, people will keep buying Bitcoin. Other market observers are bullish on ETF flows long-term because there is still a lot of Bitcoin on GBTC’s books — roughly 370,000. Crypto market commentator Allesandro Ottavani wrote that Grayscale Bitcoin Trust had 378,000 Bitcoin but sold just 9,600 today and cannot keep up this pace long-term.
Selling pressure is from short-term holders taking profit
According to a recent note from CryptoQuant, cited by CoinDesk, short-term Bitcoin holders are also exerting selling pressure by taking profit on recent gains. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading for just over $65,000, down 4.9% in the last 24 hours and 9.6% in the last seven days.
Big players are buying at any price
There is no doubt the price will keep rising long-term because the big players appear willing to buy Bitcoin at any price. On the other hand, smaller market participants are selling.
Glassnode data shows that Bitcoin whales are voraciously buying Bitcoin even at these prices. Apparently, Bitcoin investors have very different views of the currently cooling bull market, which is confirmed by the latest on-chain data.
Glassnode’s data reveals a major difference between larger and smaller allocations. It shows Bitcoin whales and Bitcoin sharks are both fighting to accumulate Bitcoin. Whales are entities holding at least 1,000 Bitcoin, while sharks hold from 100 to 1,000 Bitcoin.
Bitcoin whales bought 84K Bitcoin in a month
Flows between exchanges and whale wallets show that whales bought around 84,000 Bitcoin in the past month. Sharks started accumulating Bitcoin rapidly at the end of February. They had bought 244,000 Bitcoin between February 17 and March 17.
The data contrasts starkly with that for Bitcoin “fish,” who hold between 10 and 100 Bitcoin. They have been distributing their Bitcoin throughout this month.
It’s a struggle to break previous Bitcoin all-time highs, leaving the world’s flagship crypto in flux. This month, price discovery only existed briefly.
