Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF market share falls to 50%

Grayscale’s slice of the Bitcoin ETF pie has fallen below 50% for the first time since it was converted alongside the launch of nine new ETFs in January.
Crypto asset manager Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin 
BTC
$71,960
 exchange-traded fund (ETF) has fallen below 50% market share for the first time since spot Bitcoin ETFs began trading in the United States on Jan. 11. As of March 12, the total assets under management (AUM) in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) slumped to $28.5 billion — with Grayscale now accounting for 48.9% of the total $56.7 billion held between ten U.S. Bitcoin ETFs, according to Dune Analytics data.
Grayscale’s GBTC fund accounts for less than 50% of the total Bitcoin ETF AUM. Source: Hildobby on Dune Analytics
On the first trading day of the ten U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, Grayscale’s fund accounted for around 99.5% of their total AUM.
Over time, consistent daily outflows from the GBTC — which averaged $329 million per day last week — have eaten away at the ETF’s market share.
GBTC outflows were most sizeable within the first month of Bitcoin ETFs going live — with $7 billion leaving the fund in a little over a month — but began slowing in late January, leading some analysts to suggest that they could be coming to an end.
However, in mid-February, bankruptcy courts allowed crypto lender Genesis to liquidate roughly $1.3 billion worth of GBTC shares as part of efforts to reimburse investors, seeing outflows pick up again.
In total to date, GBTC outflows have reached just over $11 billion, per Farside Bitcoin ETF flow data.
Grayscale’s ETF was initially a trust that allowed institutional investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin by locking up funds for at least six months.
However, after a court win over the Securities and Exchange Commission in August and the regulator’s following approvals of other spot Bitcoin ETF applications, the trust was converted into an ETF.
This allowed institutional investors — who took advantage of a GBTC arbitrage trade — to remove their capital from the fund for good or simply shift their assets to Bitcoin ETFs with lower fees.