Matt Hougan, Bitwise CIO, stated that wealth advisers are adopting BTC ETFs at a rate surpassing any other new ETF in history.
The CIO countered the more negative perspective of investment researcher Jim Bianco, who observed that 85% of Bitcoin ETF demand is not from trading institutions.
Bitwise CIO Says BTC ETFs Adoption Rate Is Fastest In Any History
Hougan’s post was in response to an earlier X post by investment researcher Jim Bianco, who characterized BTC ETF adoption among wealth advisers as “small.” Bianco noted that approximately 85% of BTC ETF uptake “is NOT from trade institutions.”
According to Hougan, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) attracted $1.45 billion in net flows from wealth advisers. He stated that Bianco refers to this as “small” because it is a mere fraction of the $46 billion invested in Bitcoin ETFs.
According to Hougan, “The reality is that investment advisers are adopting Bitcoin ETFs at a rate that surpasses that of any other ETF in history.” “It is simply that the historical flows of these investors are overshadowed by the even more historic purchases of other investors.”
Wealth advisers, encompassing a wide range of entities from independent registered investment advisers (RIAs) to large wirehouses like Morgan Stanley, are an essential market segment for cryptocurrency ETFs in the United States.
In August, Federico Brokate, the director of the US business for 21Shares, a crypto ETF issuer, disclosed to Cointelegraph that wealth advisers collectively manage up to 50% of ETF inflows.
Bianco’s remarks coincide with the eleven spot BTC ETFs domiciled in the United States, which have collectively experienced net outflows of approximately $1.2 billion over the past eight days. The outflows result from a period of subpar price performance for BTC, which has seen spot prices decline by approximately 17% since August 26.
Longer-term trends indicate that wealth advisers will continue to employ BTC ETFs. Morgan Stanley, the U.S.’s largest wealth manager, permitted its 15,000 financial advisers to begin recommending Bitcoin ETFs in August.
Furthermore, Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, has reported that the four most significant ETF launches of the year thus far have all been BTC ETFs.
Roxanna Islam, chief of sector and industry research at VettaFi, informed Cointelegraph in August that RIAs are growing willing to invest in spot Bitcoin ETFs, particularly those that are larger and more liquid, such as IBIT.
Nevertheless, substantial obstacles persist despite this expansion. According to research conducted by Cerulli Associates, a fund research firm, approximately 55% of RIAs “do not expect using or discussing cryptocurrency investments with their clients at any point in the future,” and only 2.6% are actively recommending crypto to clients.
Still, “IBIT would be the second fastest-growing ETF launched this year… [o]ut of 300+ launches… if you excluded all other flows and only examined the $1.45 billion associated with investment advisers,” Hougan stated.
