Spot Bitcoin ETFs Record Trading Volume Amid Bitcoin’s Price Surge
U.S.-based Bitcoin ETFs experienced a record $10 billion in trading volume on March 5, surpassing the previous week’s record of $7.7 billion. This surge in volume came as Bitcoin reached new heights before experiencing a roughly 12% drop in the following hours.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented on the remarkable figures for ETFs less than two months old, while Bitcoin analyst Alessandro Ottaviani reported a slightly lower total trading volume of just under $9.58 billion for the funds, still breaking the previous record of $7.7 billion set on February 28.
iShares BlackRock Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) recorded the highest volume with $3.7 billion, followed by Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) with $2.8 billion and $2 billion respectively. Bitcoin experienced significant price volatility during the U.S. trading day, reaching an all-time high of $69,200 around 3:00 PM UTC on March 5, before dropping 12% to $60,860 about five hours later.
Bitcoin had partially recovered to $63,350 at the time of writing. According to Google Finance, both IBIT and FBTC saw a drop of about 8.6% for the day, with other Bitcoin ETFs recording similar price declines. In a March 5 X post, pseudonymous analyst Bit Pen humorously noted that price volatility is a monthly ritual during bull markets to eliminate leveraged decay, jokingly adding that in traditional markets, the government steps in to halt trading and rescue investors if their boom stocks fall more than 10% in a day.
Balchunas responded, acknowledging the point and highlighting the presence of strict rules and Federal Reserve protections in traditional markets against such occurrences.
