According to data from Bloomberg Intelligence and fund researcher Morningstar, the total assets of US ETF surpassed $10 trillion for the first time on Sept. 27.
This increase was largely due to over $20 billion in inflows into cryptocurrency ETFs in 2024. According to Bloomberg, investors have invested approximately $691 billion in US ETFs thus far in 2024. Almost 3% of the total inflows were attributed to crypto ETFs.
US ETF Inflow is Propelled by Crypto ETFs
In a post on the X platform on September 27, Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, stated, “We anticipate that [ETFs] will reach $25T within the next decade.”
“Typically, they double their assets every five years; however, this time, it only required 3.7 years,” he continued.
Bryan Armour, director of passive strategies research at Morningstar, informed Cointelegraph that BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust has received over $21 billion in inflows since January, making it the most popular crypto fund.
According to Morningstar data, the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF achieved net inflows of nearly $10 billion, placing it second.
The iShares Ethereum Trust ETF has also been a top performer, with net gains exceeding $1 billion. Spot Ether ETFs were introduced in July, approximately six months following the introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
In the same period, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF, established in 2013 and listed as an ETF in January, partially counterbalanced the asset class’s net gains by recording outflows of nearly $20 billion. The management fees of the elder fund, which are 1.5%, are significantly higher than those of its competitors.
According to a Bloomberg report, approximately 80% of new ETF issues in 2024 were ETFs that utilized derivatives to provide leveraged exposure to a variety of assets, in addition to spot crypto funds.
This week, leveraged MicroStrategy exchange-traded funds (ETFs) exceeded $400 million in net assets as retail investors continued to invest in the ultra-volatile BTC bets.
Bloomberg reported that Vanguard, an asset manager who deliberately refrained from introducing crypto ETFs, was responsible for approximately one-third of net inflows in 2024.
Investment managers anticipate that the United States’ introduction of options on spot BTC ETFs will expedite institutional adoption and potentially unlock “extraordinary upside” for spot BTC holders.
Nasdaq’s electronic securities exchange was authorized by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to list options on BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF on September 20. This was the initial instance where the regulator authorized options linked to spot BTC for US trading.
