Record-breaking trading volume witnessed in Spot Bitcoin ETFs amidst surge in BTC price

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States experienced a remarkable trading volume of $10 billion on March 5th, reaching a new record high before plunging by 12% in the following five hours. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas described these numbers as extraordinary for ETFs that are less than two months old. Another report by Bitcoin analyst Alessandro Ottaviani indicated a slightly lower trading volume of $9.58 billion for the funds, surpassing the previous record of $7.7 billion set on February 28th. Among the spot BTC funds, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) had the highest volume at $3.7 billion, followed by the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) with $2.8 billion, and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) with $2 billion. Throughout the US trading day, Bitcoin experienced significant price fluctuations, reaching an all-time high of $69,200 at around 3:00 pm UTC on March 5th, and then dropping by 12% to a low of $60,860 approximately five hours later, according to CoinGecko. As of now, Bitcoin has partially recovered to $63,350. Despite the new high, Bitcoin has faced a decline of over 6% in the last 24 hours. IBIT and FBTC both experienced an 8.6% fall on the same day, with other spot Bitcoin ETFs also reporting similar price drops, according to Google Finance. In response to the price swing, pseudonymous analyst Bit Paine humorously mentioned that these fluctuations were a regular occurrence during bull markets, serving as a means to eliminate “leveraged degenerates” who are new to Bitcoin through ETFs. Balchunas concurred, acknowledging the protective measures in traditional markets that are absent in the cryptocurrency realm.