Institutional Investors Pile Into Crypto Exchange-Traded Products: Managed Assets Rise to $44 Billion This Month

The total assets under management across all crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) worldwide have risen 50% this month to nearly $44 billion. Among listed products, Grayscale’s bitcoin trust tops the list with the most assets under management while Bitwise’s fund was the best performing bitcoin product by market price over the last 30 days.

• Cryptocompare published its “Digital Asset Management Review” for the month of February on Friday. The report states that the total assets under management (AUM) across all exchange-traded products (ETPs) increased 50% to $43.9 billion from mid-January to Feb. 23.

• The price of bitcoin was above $50K on Feb. 23. It has since fallen to $46,876 at the time of writing, based on data from markets.Bitcoin.com.

• The crypto exchange-traded product with the most AUM was Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) with $35 billion in assets under management, according to the report. As of Feb. 26, GBTC’s AUM has dropped to $30.72 billion due to the lower BTC price. Other listed crypto products with the most AUM include Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust, Litecoin Trust, and Bitcoin Cash Trust. The bitcoin fund by 3iq (QBTC) also made the top five list with $1.27 billion under management.

• Most of the investments into crypto exchange products are made by institutional investors, particularly hedge funds. In its Q4 2020 report, Grayscale wrote that “Institutions are here,” noting that institutions accounted for 93% of all its capital inflows during the period.

• As for exchange-traded notes (ETNs), ETC Group’s BTCE has the largest AUM with $1.01 billion. Wisdomtree’s BTCW came second with $314.8 million and 21shares’ ABTC with $257.8 million.

• The report also ranks exchange-traded certificates. XBT Provider by Coinshares’ Bitcoin Tracker Euro holds the highest AUM with $1.72 billion, followed by Bitcoin Tracker One with $1.06 billion.

• The best performing bitcoin exchange-traded product by market price over the last 30 days was Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW) with 156%, the report notes. Its performance exceeded both Cryptocompare’s CCCAGG BTC/USD Index performance (64%) and MVIS’ MVDA Index performance (48.9%).

• Furthermore, North America now has two bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF): Purpose Bitcoin ETF and Evolve Bitcoin ETF. The former accumulated $165 million on its first day of trading.

What do you think about investing in crypto exchange-traded products? Let us know in the comments section below.