BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust Outperforms Bitcoin Since Launch

According to Blockworks, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has outperformed bitcoin since its launch on Thursday. While the top cryptocurrency has fallen 10.2% since the ETFs went live, IBIT has experienced a smaller loss of 8.9%. In comparison, Valkyrie's BRRR and Franklin Templeton's EZBC are the worst-performing bitcoin ETFs, with respective losses of 10.6% and 10.8%, similar to bitcoin and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). IBIT and GBTC are currently leading in terms of volume, with $334 million and $1 billion today, respectively. GBTC, now a spot ETF, was previously a closed-ended fund with shares that could not be redeemed for bitcoin. It is unclear how much capital has flowed out of GBTC and into other funds, but the vehicle had around $29 billion in bitcoin before its conversion earlier this week. Some discrepancy between the price of bitcoin and the share price of ETFs is expected, as ETFs offer exposure to the underlying asset, and the value of that exposure is influenced by its own supply, demand, and liquidity. Spot ETFs should track the price of the underlying asset more closely than funds with synthetic exposure through futures contracts. BITO, the largest futures-backed bitcoin ETF with over $2 billion in assets, is practically mirroring BlackRock's fund. Overperformance in IBIT or any other ETF beating bitcoin could indicate investor preferences, with those shares in higher demand relative to the rest.