While Bitcoin ETF watchers have been focused on a potential “flippening” in which BlackRock’s IBIT overtakes Grayscale’s GBTC in assets under management, another ETF has seen accelerating outflows.
The Ark 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), from Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest, has seen two straight days of outflows for the first time since the start of the month, per data from Farside Investors. Some $12.9 million exited the fund on April 16th, with a further $42.7 million in outflows on the 17th.
Per data from the 21 Shares website, ARKB currently holds assets worth $2.7 billion, with year to date returns of 37.08%, as Bitcoin’s price rose from around $42,000 at the start of the year to its current price of around $63,000.
ARKB’s outflows are accelerating alongside those of the broader Bitcoin ETF market, which has seen only two days of net inflows since the start of last week. Total net outflows reached $165 million yesterday, with the lion’s share being made up of GBTC’s $133.1 million outflows.
Inflows to BlackRock’s IBIT have slowed, too, with just $18.1 million entering the fund yesterday, as Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas suggested that IBIT might overtake GBTC in assets under management by the end of the month.
Earlier this month, Grayscale CEO Micheal Sonnenshein suggested that outflows from GBTC had “started to reach a little bit of an equilibrium,” arguing that initial outflows from the fund were “anticipated” and resulted from selling linked to the bankruptcies of FTX and other crypto firms.
🚨 ARKB sells 690 #BTC ($43M)
Total Inflows since launch 44,600 #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/1c3I7MovVi
— Thomas | heyapollo.com (@thomas_fahrer) April 17, 2024
ARKB’s outflows, meanwhile, come as Ark has faced declining market share in the U.S. ETF market.
Over the past year, Ark’s ETFs have seen outflows of $2.7 billion, with $1.8 billion leaving its funds in the first three months of 2024. This week, the firm launched its first European ETFs, Ark Innovation UCITS ETF (ARKK), Ark Genomic Revolution UCITS ETF (ARKG) and Ark Artificial Intelligence & Robots UCITS ETF (ARKI).
“Over the past decade, a substantial portion of our website traffic, subscriber base, inbound requests, and social media traffic have come from people in Europe,” Wood said in a statement about the launch of the European funds, “a clear signal of the strong interest and demand for Ark’s investment strategies within the European market.”
