Grayscale Investments' GBTC has seen its first day of inflows, following over $17.5 billion in outflows since the launch of Bitcoin ETFs in January. Grayscale Investments has achieved its first day of net positive inflows for the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). This comes after nearly four months of continuous outflows since its conversion to a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in January. On May 3, Grayscale’s GBTC recorded $63 million in inflows after recording approximately $17.5 billion of outflows since the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in Jan. 11, according to Farside preliminary data.
The crypto community has been speculating how the turn in events might impact Bitcoin’s BTC $63,062 price. Pseudonymous crypto investor DivXman told his followers that the GBTC was the “primary source” of sell pressure across all spot Bitcoin ETFs, but “the tides” could be turning. Crypto trader Jelle predicted to his 80,300 X followers on the same day that Bitcoin's new all-time high is on the horizon.
Several factors contributed to Grayscale’s ongoing outflows since the launch of the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs. One reason is GBTC's high fees compared to other available ETFs. GBTC's fee is set at 1.5%, whereas the fees for other ETFs are all below 1%. The cheapest is currently Franklin Templeton with a 0.19% fee. Another main driver is bankrupt crypto firms FTX and Genesis selling off large amounts of GBTC shares in an effort to repay creditors. On April 6, Genesis liquidated approximately 36 million GBTC shares for $2.1 billion to purchase 32,041 Bitcoin, cointelegraph reported.
Vested crypto assets worth over $3.1 billion will be released in May, with projects like Sui and Pyth Network unlocking over $1 billion in tokens each. Crypto vesting is done to promote continued dedication to a crypto project. Vested crypto tokens are locked to prohibit early investors or team members from hastily dumping their tokens and leaving the project. Among the projects releasing vested crypto assets, layer-1 blockchain platform Sui will release the largest amount.
With Pyth Network’s (PYTH) token hovering at about $0.51 a piece, the tokens to be released are worth roughly $1.1 billion. Apart from the two, projects like Avalanche AVAX $35.49, Aptos APT $9.11, Arbitrum (ARB), Starknet (STRK), Optimism (OP) and Immutable (IMX) will release a combined over $700 million in tokens. On May 12, Aptos will release 11.3 million APT tokens worth $101 million to its foundation, community, core contributors and investors. On May 22, Avalanche will unlock 9.5 million AVAX, worth around $321 million, for its strategic partners, foundation, team and airdrop.
Layer-2 blockchain network Arbitrum will release another $95 million in ARB tokens on May 16. The tokens are allocated to the project’s team and investors. On March 16, Arbitrum released $2.3 billion in tokens to its team and investors. In addition, Starknet will unlock $84 million in tokens for its investors and early contributors on May 15, while Immutable will unlock $56 million in crypto tokens for ecosystem and project development on May 17. Layer-2 scaling solution Optimism will also unlock 24.1 million OP tokens on May 29. The tokens are worth about $70 million at current market prices.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has prolonged its review period on the listing of 7RCC’s carbon-neutral spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). According to a May 2 notice, the commission will now finalize its approval or disapproval of the NYSE Arca’s application by June 24. The first deadline was set for May 10. The fund is designed to expose investors to Bitcoin BTC $63,007 alongside carbon credits, mitigating the digital asset's carbon footprint.
The ETF plans to allocate 80% of its assets to Bitcoin and the remaining 20% to financial instruments, such as swaps, tied to carbon credit futures contracts related to emissions allowances. According to 7RCC’s filing, the carbon credits are associated with the European Union Emissions Trading System, the California Carbon Allowance, and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Carbon credit futures are financial derivatives that enable trading based on the expected future value of carbon credits.
Since January, the Commission has approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs. These ETFs allow for direct investment in Bitcoin rather than through derivatives such as futures, providing exposure to Bitcoin’s market movements through a regulated investment product. Investment managers’ next target is options trading on spot Bitcoin ETFs. Since January, the Commission has been delaying a decision on applications submitted by the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and Cboe Global Markets.
