BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has achieved over $10 billion in assets under management (AUM) in just over seven weeks. This impressive milestone took the first U.S. gold-backed ETF more than two years to reach.
As of March 1, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF reached $10 billion in AUM, marking around 39 trading days since its launch. In comparison, the United States’ first gold ETF, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), took more than two years to achieve the same feat after its launch in 2004.
According to the Zero Hedge finance blog, Bitcoin ETF inflows have far surpassed those of gold. Reflexivity Research co-founder Will Clemente stated on March 3, “Bitcoin ETF inflows have absolutely blown gold’s out of the water. Not even close, utterly dwarfed, decimated.”
Last week, there were multiple days of record inflows to spot Bitcoin ETFs, with Feb. 26, 27, and 28 seeing inflows exceeding $500 billion.
Retired venture capitalist Jeff Kirdeikis shared a chart on March 4 comparing the inflows of BTC ETFs with the outflows of gold funds. He noted that Bitcoin products have already accumulated almost half of the value of gold funds since their launch in January.
Despite these significant developments, goldbug Peter Schiff remains unconvinced. On March 2, he criticized CNBC for focusing on Bitcoin and the new Bitcoin ETFs, claiming they failed to report on the rise in the price of gold or the new record-high price of the gold ETF GLD.
Spot gold prices reached near-peak levels of $2,081 per ounce on March 3, but the precious metal has only gained 1% since the beginning of the year. In contrast, Bitcoin prices have surged by 50% over the same period.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented in late February that “Gold’s pain is Bitcoin ETFs’ gain in the store of value smackdown.” He also suggested that there is a decent chance Bitcoin ETFs could surpass gold ETFs in AUM in less than two years.