Spot Bitcoin ETFs set trading volume record amid Bitcoin price high

On March 5, trading volume for Bitcoin ETFs domiciled in the United States exceeded the previous week’s record of $7.7 billion. On March 5, the United States spot Bitcoin BTC $66,232 exchange-traded funds (ETF) saw a record $10 billion in trading activity, as Bitcoin reached a new all-time high before falling by about 12% over the next five hours.

“These are bananas numbers for ETFs under [two months] old,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in a March 5 X post on the results. Bitcoin analyst Alessandro Ottaviani estimated a somewhat lower trading volume of $9.58 billion for the funds, which nonetheless above the previous record of $7.7 billion set on February 28.According to Ottaviani’s calculations, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) had the most activity, totaling $3.7 billion, followed by the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which received $2.8 billion and $2 billion respectively.

Bitcoin saw strong price swings during the U.S. trading day, reaching a new all-time high of $69,200 about 3:00 p.m. UTC on March 5, before plunging 12% to a low of $60,860 approximately five hours later, according to CoinGecko.

Bitcoin has partially recovered, reaching $63,350 at the time of writing. IBIT and FBTC both declined roughly 8.6% on the day, with other spot Bitcoin ETFs experiencing similar price losses, according to Google Finance.In a March 5 X post, pseudonymous analyst Bit Paine joked with those new to Bitcoin via ETFs that the price swing was “a monthly ritual during bull markets” to clean out “leveraged degenerates.”

“You’re not used to this. If your boomer stocks fall more than 10% in a single day, the government will intervene to halt trade and bail you out, they warned. “You have a point,” Balchunas answered. “We have limit up and limit down rules and the Fed to protect us from this kinda thing.”

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