Bitcoin Funds Get $306 Million Boost Ahead of SEC Ethereum ETF Deadline

Sure, the spotlight has been on spot Ethereum ETF hopefuls since Monday—but the already-trading Bitcoin ETFs have gotten a boost from the excitement.

Yesterday Bitcoin ETFs saw $306 million worth of funds deposited, according to Coinglass. That's the biggest single day of inflows the category of funds have seen since earlier this month.

Yesterday's distribution across the Bitcoin ETFs wasn't exactly even.

BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) took in $290 million, while the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) saw $26 million worth of inflows. That was offset by the Bitcoin Bitcoin ETF (BITB) and VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL) seeing $4 million and $6 million worth of withdrawals, respectively.

And the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which saw $72.5 million worth of net inflows between May 15 and May 20, was flat on Tuesday, according to Coinglass data.

As an aside, the gap GBTC and IBIT has now shrunk to $736 million. That's approximately half what it was less than a month ago. It remains to be seen whether Grayscale's incoming CEO, Peter Mintzberg, will make any changes to the firm's flagship Bitcoin fund.

But why would Bitcoin ETFs pump on anticipation for Ethereum counterparts? That could be because some analysts, like Standard Chartered bank, are predicting that an Ethereum ETF approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission could lead both assets—BTC and ETH—to new all-time highs.

The global market cap got close to matching that in mid-March, when the Bitcoin price was on a tear and set its currently all-time high of $73,737.94.

For Ethereum, that means chasing a price of $4,878.26—which it last saw on November 10, 2021. That's around the time that prices were booming and the global crypto market capitalization inched past $3 trillion for the first time ever.

And there are plenty of traders turning to derivatives in hopes it'll do just that. In the past day, Ethereum open interest has surged by 30% to an all-time high of $11 billion, according to Kaiko.

As of this morning, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation now includes the VanEck Ethereum ETF on its active and pre-launch list. Hard to say whether that's a sign of an imminent approval, though.

Tickers for Bitcoin ETFs appeared and then disappeared on the clearing house and settlement company's list all the way back in October, which was months before the SEC approved any for trading.