Yesterday, publicly traded crypto funds around the world received a significant boost of over $61 million in new investments. This amount makes up more than 10% of all the money that has been added to crypto funds since the beginning of this year. What’s interesting is that almost all of this fresh capital was directed into Bitcoin funds.
This surge in investments came at a time when the price of Bitcoin (BTC) shot up to $35,000, reflecting the growing interest from investors who are eagerly awaiting the introduction of a Bitcoin ETF in the United States. Out of the $61 million, a substantial $57 million found its way into Bitcoin-based funds, while another $5.7 million was invested in Solana (SOL).
James Butterfill, who is the Head of Research at CoinShares, pointed out that these investments mainly came from Germany and Canada, with very little coming from the United States at this point.
Germany and Canada have taken the lead among a few advanced nations in introducing spot Bitcoin ETFs. These are funds where you can exchange shares for a fixed portion of actual Bitcoin.
Germany’s ETC Group attracted $24.3 million in investments for its crypto products, and Canada’s Purpose Investments, which is the world’s first Bitcoin ETF provider, received $10.9 million. Additionally, products from 21Shares AG received another $11.8 million in investments.
It’s important to note that while U.S. investors have options for investing in Bitcoin, none of these options provide a direct 1:1 exposure to actual Bitcoin. For example, funds like Grayscale (GBTC) don’t precisely mirror Bitcoin’s price, and the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) offers exposure to Bitcoin futures, not the cryptocurrency itself.
Butterfill believes that U.S. investors might be holding off because they’re waiting for the approval of a physical Bitcoin ETF. This is evident from the limited activity in the country’s current investment products on Monday. He mentioned, ‘Compared to the last month, there has been almost no new investments from U.S. investors.’
Grayscale and 21Shares are competing to be the first to introduce a spot Bitcoin ETF, and the race between them is heating up.
Recently, the Court of Appeals instructed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to take another look at Grayscale’s earlier application, which had been denied. At the same time, the SEC has a deadline of January 10 to make a decision on the Ark/21Shares Bitcoin ETF application, which is much earlier than the final deadline for other applicants.
To put it in perspective, before yesterday, CoinShares had reported that Bitcoin funds had received only $55.3 million in investments over the entire week.
