U.S. Bitcoin ETFs See $2.8 Billion in Inflows Driving Price Surge

U.S. spot bitcoin (BTC) ETFs have seen around $2.8 billion in net inflows in the last five trading days, raising bitcoin's price from $85,000 to $94,000. The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) contributed $1.3 billion of these inflows.

Michael Saylor, Chairman of Strategy (MSTR), stated that "IBIT will be the biggest ETF in the world in ten years." Currently, IBIT has a market capitalization of $54 billion, with over $1.5 billion in volume on Thursday. In comparison, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) has a market cap of $593.5 billion.

Bloomberg's Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas noted that for IBIT to become the largest ETF, it would need to attract inflows exceeding $1 billion daily, potentially in the range of $3 to $4 billion.

The annualized basis trade for bitcoin ETFs has increased to nearly 10% from 5% in early April. This rise, along with a 2,000 BTC increase in futures open interest, indicates that some net ETF inflows may be part of the basis trade rather than purely directional bets.