US Bitcoin ETFs see $4.6 billion in volume in first day of trading

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw $4.6 billion worth of shares trade hands as of Thursday afternoon, according to LSEG data, as investors jumped into the landmark products approved by the U.S. securities regulator on Wednesday.

The products mark a watershed moment for the cryptocurrency industry that will test whether digital assets — still viewed by many professionals as risky — can gain broader acceptance as an investment.

Eleven spot bitcoin ETFs — including BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, among others — began trading Thursday morning, kicking off a fierce competition for market share.

Grayscale, BlackRock and Fidelity dominated trading volumes, the LSEG data showed.

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«Trading volumes have been relatively strong for new ETF products,» said Todd Rosenbluth, strategist at VettaFi. «But this is a longer race than just a single day's trading.

The green light from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the products finally came late on Wednesday, following a decade-long tussle with the crypto industry.

Some executives called out bitcoin as a high-risk investment, and Vanguard — the largest provider of mutual funds — said it had no plans to make the new batch of spot bitcoin ETFs available on its platform to its brokerage clients.

The SEC had earlier rejected all spot bitcoin ETFs on investor protection concerns. SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement on Wednesday that the approvals were not an endorsement of bitcoin, calling it a „speculative,