The institutional-grade Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) space continues to get congested, as Morgan Stanley’s MSBT financial product recently completed its first month. Notably, the fund saw zero days of outflows, standing as an outlier in the Bitcoin ETF space.
Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF sustains investor confidence
In its first month of operation, Morgan Stanley’s MSBT Bitcoin spot ETF attracted $194 million in inflows. Within the same period, the fund reported zero days of outflows, showing strong consistency.
Data from SoSoValue shows that MSBT net cumulative inflows as of Friday, stood at around $193.8 million. The fund saw the most inflows on April 15, to the tune of $19.32 million.
In terms of net assets held, the MSBT fund currently holds BTC worth $239.6 million, trailing Franklin Templeton’s EZBC ETF, which holds $492.9 million in funds. However, MSBT is ranked ahead of WisdomTree’s BTCW ETF, which holds funds worth $179.4 million.
The fact that MSBT saw no outflows in its first month is worth emphasizing, as it shows that early buyers of the fund chose to hold their BTC instead of trying to trade short-term price swings.
Such behavior in a fund is typically indicative of institutional allocation, which has the characteristic of stickier capital instead of retail-driven flows. However, one month of funds movement is too short a time to draw any meaningful conclusions.
The fund’s real test will be when BTC sees a sharp price drawdown, which will likely shake investor faith in the digital asset, including institutional investors.
BlackRock continues to dominate BTC ETF space
While Morgan Stanley’s foray into the Bitcoin ETF space has made competition sharper in the market, BlackRock’s flagship IBIT spot Bitcoin ETF continues to lead the pack, holding net assets worth a mammoth $65.7 billion.
A distant second is Fidelity’s FBTC spot BTC ETF, which holds net assets worth $15.1 billion. Grayscale’s two spot BTC ETFs – named GBTC and BTC – hold funds amounting to $12 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively.
Despite the BTC spot ETF numbers steadily rising, there is a clear lack of apparent demand for the product in the market. As of Monday, the total net assets tied in US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs stand at $106.6 billion, representing 6.6 percent of BTC’s total market cap.
