- Grayscale GBTC generated extra annual revenues than all different U.S. spot BTC ETFs mixed.
- Nonetheless, GBTC’s BTC has dropped about 70% since its ETF conversion in January 2024.
Regardless of being the costliest, Grayscale Bitcoin [BTC] Belief ETF (GBTC) has outpaced the full income collected by the remainder of the U.S. spot BTC ETFs.
In an X (previously Twitter) publish, Nate Geraci of ETF Retailer highlighted that GBTC had an implied income of $268 million, in comparison with $211 million from mixed collections by the opposite 11 merchandise.
“Almost 16 months after spot BTC ETFs launched, GBTC nonetheless making extra $$$ than the entire different ETFs mixed…And it’s not even shut.”
What’s behind GBTC’s dominance?
After the debut in January 2024, Grayscale’s GBTC noticed the heaviest outflows on what analysts linked to investor flight to cheaper alternate options like BlackRock’s iShares BTC ETF.
Earlier than the debut, GBTC held about 619,000 BTC. Sixteen months later, the GBTC’s holdings dropped to 191,000 BTC, an almost 70% decline in property beneath administration (AUM).
As proven by Geraci’s information, GBTC charged the very best charges of 1.5% whereas the remainder of the merchandise had a median value of 0.15%-0.94%. But GBTC dominated the general annual income.
Based on Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, GBTC’s 1.5% charge was considered common within the conventional ETF market.
Nonetheless, different analysts identified that the majority traders have been captured in GBTC because of the heavy tax implications of switching to a less expensive different. Daniel Sempere, a enterprise coach, stated,
“Paying the capital features to change out of GBTC is extra painful than paying the additional charges, I assume.”
Merely put, the excessive charges and captive tax implications boosted GBTC earnings. Nonetheless, can the anticipated approval of in-kind redemption for ETFs have an effect on GBTC’s moat?
Based on consultants, in-kind redemption, utilizing BTC as a substitute of money, would decrease the tax burden, particularly for giant traders. Regardless of in-kind redemption being tax-efficient, particular person traders sitting on large unrealized features will nonetheless face capital features tax.
That stated, GBTC ranked third on the AUM entrance with $17.8 billion. The BlackRock iShares BTC ETF topped the AUM checklist with $54.8 billion, adopted by Constancy’s FBTC at $18 billion.
After the hunch in Q1 2025, the spot BTC ETFs noticed renewed demand in April, with a whopping $3 billion in inflows.
This boosted BTC’s restoration to $94k, up 26% from the 12 months’s low of $74.5k. Within the brief time period, the $92K vary low help and $100K overhead mid-range resistance have been key ranges to observe.