Cathie Wood’s ARK 21Shares Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) experienced a significant outflow of over $87 million, surpassing Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) for the first time since the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States. According to data from Farside Investors, the outflows from ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) on April 2 were approximately $87.5 million, equivalent to around 1,300 BTC.
This marked the second consecutive day of outflows for ARKB, as it lost $300,000 in assets on April 1. Grayscale, on the other hand, posted yet another daily outflow of $81.9 million, although this was considered relatively low compared to its average outflows over the past five trading days, which amounted to $254 million per day. Grayscale has seen a total outflow of around $15.1 billion over the past three months.
Despite the outflows from ARKB and GBTC, BlackRock’s fund recorded an inflow of $150.5 million, resulting in net aggregate inflows of $40.3 million for the day. ARKB remains the third-largest spot ETF among the nine newly launched ones (excluding Grayscale), with $2.2 billion in assets under management (AUM). It is surpassed by BlackRock’s and Fidelity’s funds, which have AUMs of $14.1 billion and $7.6 billion, respectively.
In terms of Bitcoin holdings, ARKB is the sixth-largest holder among funds, corporations, and miners, with 44,662 BTC. However, GBTC still leads the pack with approximately 329,000 BTC, despite shedding around 291,000 Bitcoin since its conversion to an ETF.
The price of Bitcoin has been declining since the beginning of the month, dropping by around 9% from last week’s high and briefly falling below $65,000 on April 3. This decline coincides with the increasing outflows from ETFs.
In addition, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted the launch of the first-ever 2x and -2x leveraged spot Bitcoin ETFs, which he expects to be among the top five most volatile ETFs in the US. He also noted that Bitcoin ETFs traded around $111 billion in volume in March, nearly triple the volume of February and January combined.
Overall, the outflows from ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust, along with the decline in Bitcoin price, have been notable events in the cryptocurrency market.