BlackRock’s bitcoin spot ETF ranked as the most popular of the 11 new funds available on Robinhood in terms of volume, the company’s chief brokerage officer, Steve Quirk, told The Block.
“The BlackRock play has been the one that has seen the most volume from our perspective, with Grayscale close behind,” he said in an interview.
“It’s basically our customers saying, ‘We want a low-cost path to make this a component of our portfolio,’” he continued, adding that “Grayscale is a sell and continues to be a sell while the others continue to be largely buy.”
Among Robinhood users who recently chose to buy spot bitcoin ETFs, a third did so after selling a portion of their existing portfolio, Quirk said.
“Of all the people who participated in trading, these 11 [spot bitcoin ETFs]33% of people sold part of their portfolio – so they sold some of the shares – and then bought them [ETFs]. So they basically made it a component of their portfolio.”
Trading volume
While BlackRock’s new ETF is generating more volume on Robinhood, in the broader market, Grayscale has seen the most activity among currently trading bitcoin exchange-traded funds. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, much of Grayscale’s volume was generated by outflows.
The company’s bitcoin spot ETF is a conversion of its flagship GBTC fund and charges a higher fee than some of its competitors. It is also much larger in terms of assets under management, and investors who wanted to sell before the ETF converted faced a steep discount.
Grayscale did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
So far, more than 90% of all spot bitcoin ETF trading occurs through the top three funds by volume, offered by Grayscale, BlackRock and Fidelity. On the fifth trading day, the cumulative trading total of all spot bitcoin ETFs was $12.7 billion as of 12:47 p.m. ET.
“Top 20” investment.
Quirk, who is bullish on spot bitcoin ETFs, said he is pleased with the popularity of the new bitcoin-based instruments among Robinhood users.
“If we look at the overall volume in our world, these [ETFs] they made it into the top 20 “most popular investments on the platform,” he said.
Last week, Robinhood announced that it would list all 11 spot bitcoin ETFs on its trading platform.
“We believe that cryptocurrencies are the financial framework of the future and that they increase access to bitcoin via ETF is a good thing for the industry,” Johann Kerbrat, CEO of Robinhood Crypto, said at the time.
Robinhood currently has 23 million users.
