(Bloomberg) — Less than two weeks after US regulators fired the starting gun for ten spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, it’s increasingly looking like a two-horse race for new assets.
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BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (ticker IBIT) and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) are leading the field with about $1.9 billion and $1.6 billion of inflows, respectively, according the latest available data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s roughly a combined 70% of spot Bitcoin ETF inflows so far.
The early dominance speaks to the might of the two asset management giants’ marketing and distribution channels, which has likely helped to land the products in both institutional and retail portfolios. That bid has persisted even as Bitcoin plunged post-launch, dragging both IBIT and FBTC to double-digit losses. Their distribution muscle, combined with name recognition that smaller issuers might not enjoy, have given the pair a massive lead on the rest of the field.
“BlackRock and Fidelity have both the liquidity and the brand recognition that some of the other issuers don’t have — especially when it comes to retail investors who are hesitant about investing in an emerging asset class,” said Roxanna Islam, at ETF data and analytics firm VettaFi. “It’s still early in the race, but I think the gap between BlackRock and Fidelity and the other issuers will only widen the more their volume and assets increase.”
The Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) is a distant third with a $518 million haul, followed closely by a $509 million influx for Cathie Wood’s ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB).
While it’s a crowded field, the strong showing from the middle of the pack suggests there’s room for multiple issuers in the spot Bitcoin ETF arena, in the eyes of the ETF Store’s Nate Geraci.
“It’s no small feat for an ETF in any asset class to hit $500 million, let alone a billion in assets under management,” said Geraci, president of the advisory firm. “To achieve this in a novel asset class less than two weeks after launch is highly impressive.”
All of the spot Bitcoin ETFs that began trading this month have posted net inflows so far, with the exception of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). While GBTC is by far the world’s largest cryptocurrency fund with $22 billion in assets, it has shed roughly $4 billion since it converted into an ETF.
GBTC carries an industry-high fee of 1.5% — lower than its 2% cost prior to conversion, but still magnitudes greater than its closest competitors. Franklin Templeton’s fund has a post-waiver 0.19% expense ratio — the lowest among spot-Bitcoin ETFs — while BlackRock and Fidelity are close behind, with eventual fees of 0.25% after a waiver period.
Read more: Grayscale CEO Says Track Record Justifies Bitcoin ETF Fees
Over the longer-term, odds are that the likes of BlackRock and Fidelity will remain atop the leaderboard, according to Anthony Scaramucci of SkyBridge Capital.
“BlackRock and Fidelity will be the two dominant names. They have the largest sales forces,” Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge, said on Bloomberg Television this month. “The gravity of financial services are assets, and those are two of the largest players in the ETF space. So I suspect those will be the two winners.”
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