BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Breaks Volume Record as Bitcoin Rallies to $64K Before Plunging

• BlackRock's bitcoin ETF has traded nearly $3 billion Wednesday, twice as much as its previous volume record, with other new bitcoin ETFs also attracting heavy trading.
• "These numbers are absurd," ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted.
• The frenzy in ETF trading happened as bitcoin surged to $64,000 during the day then quickly fell off to $60,000.

U.S. spot bitcoin {{BTC}} exchange-traded funds (ETF) experienced another massive trading session Wednesday with BlackRock's bitcoin ETF (IBIT) breaking its volume record for the third consecutive day.

Nearly 87 million of IBIT shares worth roughly $3 billion changed hands during the day as of 3:20 p.m. Eastern time, with almost an hour left before market close, Nasdaq data shows. This is twice as much as Tuesday's all-time best of $1.35 billion, which toppled Monday's record of $1.3 billion.

Halfway into the trading session, IBIT was the fourth most traded ETF in the U.S., and three other new spot bitcoin ETFs were in the top 20, Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, noted earlier during the day.

"This is officially a craze," Balchunas said in an X post. "These numbers are absurd."

JEEZ: Only halfway through trading day and New Nine bitcoin ETFs have already broken their all time daily volume record w/ $2.6b. We got 4 btc ETFs in Top 20. $IBIT is #4 overall, it's gonna trade more today than in its first two wks combined. This is officially a craze. pic.twitter.com/Wqez1rKrCg

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 28, 2024

The frenzy in market activity happened as bitcoin blasted past $60,000 before U.S market hours for the first time since Nov. 2021, and ran up to as high as $64,000 before tumbling 7% below $60,000. The largest crypto by market capitalization gained 44% in a month.

Market observers pointed to demand for spot bitcoin ETFs as a significant driving force behind the price surge.

Read more: Morgan Stanley Evaluating Spot Bitcoin ETFs for Its Giant Brokerage Platform

The ten newly-listed spot ETFs attracted over $6.7 billion in net inflows since their debut in January, according to BitMEX Research. This week, allocations to the spot ETFs accelerated, surpassing $1 billion in two days, with BlackRock's IBIT alone pulling in $520 million of fresh funds on Tuesday, BitMEX Research data shows.

[1/4] Bitcoin ETF Flow - 27 Feb 2024

All data now in.

$576.8m net inflow on 27th Feb, very strong day. Blackrock alone had $520m inflow

Total net inflow since 11th Jan 2024 now $6,726.1m for the ETFs pic.twitter.com/E0zDBkzqxm

— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) February 28, 2024