Bitcoin bulls get excited after FTX report sells $1 billion in GBTC | CoinDesk JAPAN

The lackluster performance of Bitcoin (BTC) since its launch in the U.S. on January 11th is at least partly due to the large Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). ) due to the huge sale of Bitcoin. According to the Grayscale website, GBTC held approximately 567,000 BTC as of January 19th, down from just under 620,000 BTC before the launch on January 11th.

As such, while the spot ETF has amassed 94,000 BTC and over $3.9 billion in assets under management since it began trading (data through January 19), bears believe that 53,000 of that amount is simply due to GBTC holders having a lower (GBBTC’s management fee is 1.5%, which is at least 1% higher than almost all new spot ETFs).

However, CoinDesk reported on the morning of the 22nd that the bankruptcy estate of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX has sold all 22 million GBTC units (equivalent to nearly 20,000 BTC) for nearly $1 billion. .

This news has two meanings, and at first glance, both appear to be bullish. First, more than a third of GBTC sales were to a single non-economic seller. Second, new investments in physical ETFs were nearly $1 billion higher than previously thought.

“$1 billion of GBTC’s sales came from the FTX Bankruptcy Foundation, meaning that new ETF inflows are simply GBTC This means that the funds were not recycled funds from the government.”

Bitcoin sellers remain in the ascendancy, at least up to the time of writing, with the price dropping 2.8% over the past 24 hours to $40,400 on Wednesday afternoon.

｜Translation and editing: Rinan Hayashi
｜Image: John Angel/Unsplash
｜Original text: Bitcoin Bulls Buoyed by Report of FTX’s $1B GBTC Sale