On December 16, the total net assets of U.S. spot ETFs and derivative Bitcoin ETFs reached $129 billion, surpassing gold ETFs for the first time.
According to data from K33 Research, the net assets of U.S. Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) surpassed those of gold funds for the first time on December 16 as institutional investors increased their demand for virtual currencies.
December 16. 16. According to a December 17 post on the X platform by K33 head of research Vettor Lund, US BTC ETFs have now surpassed $129 billion in combined assets under management (AUM), surpassing US gold ETFs, which were slightly below that figure. .
K33 Research is a Norway-based digital asset researcher.
According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the AUM figure includes spot BTC ETFs as well as ETFs that use financial derivatives such as futures to track Bitcoin’s performance.
“If you include all Bitcoin ETFs (spot, futures and leveraged), it’s $130 billion compared to $128 billion for gold ETFs. “So if you just look at spot, BTC is $120 billion compared to $125 billion for gold,” Balchunas said. In any case, he added, it’s “unrealistic” that a bitcoin fund would even compete with gold in this way after just 11 months.
Bitcoin ETF Dominance
The Spot BTC ETF was launched in January after a lengthy review process by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Since then, Bitcoin has dominated the ETF world. The U.S. Spot BTC ETF surpassed $100 billion in net assets for the first time in November, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data.
The increase in Bitcoin ETF net assets “reflects a more positive outlook for Bitcoin’s future following President Trump’s election victory, which has led to improved performance and more than $5 billion in inflows,” Brian Armour, director of passive strategies research at Morningstar, told Cointelegraph in November. According to BlackRock’s website, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is the top BTC ETF with about $60 billion in assets under management.
In November, IBIT surpassed BlackRock’s gold ETF, iShares Gold Trust (IAU), in terms of net assets.
Devaluation Trade
Amid rising geopolitical tensions, investors are turning to gold and BTC in so-called “devaluation trades” to prepare for “catastrophic scenarios,” according to a JP Morgan report in October.
“Devaluation trades” refer to increased demand for gold driven by a range of factors, from “structurally heightened geopolitical uncertainty beyond 2022, to persistently high uncertainty about the long-term inflation situation, to persistently high government deficits in major economies,” JP Morgan said.
On the 12th Following the Bitcoin price hitting a new record high on the 16th, the Bitcoin-to-gold ratio, which indicates Bitcoin’s purchasing power over the yellow metal, hit a new all-time high.
