It has been just over a day since the approval of 11 spot bitcoin ETFs for trading in the U.S. by the SEC. The initial trading volume has exceeded expectations, prompting some of the approved issuers to take additional measures to differentiate their products in the market.
Key Takeaway
The competition among spot bitcoin ETFs has led to a significant reduction in fees, with Franklin Templeton’s ETF offering the lowest post-waiver fee. The increasing demand for these products indicates a growing interest in the cryptocurrency investment ecosystem.
Fierce Competition Drives Fee Reduction
Franklin Templeton’s Franklin Bitcoin ETF, which ranked sixth in first-day trading volume at $65.45 million, has taken a bold step to attract more investors. The firm has lowered its fee from 29 basis points to 19 basis points, making it the lowest post-waiver fee among all the spot bitcoin ETFs. This move positions it 0.01% lower than Bitwise’s 0.2% fee. It’s worth noting that several issuers, including Franklin, are waiving fees for a limited time. In contrast, the highest fee stands at 1.5% for Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust.
Increasing Demand for Bitcoin ETFs
The strong demand for spot bitcoin ETFs and related products is expected to continue to grow over time, attracting attention from major investment houses. Sandy Kaul, the head of digital asset and industry advisory services at Franklin Templeton, noted, “People are waking up to this new type of investment ecosystem. We’ve seen a definite expansion of interest from our client base in the past 12 to 18 months.”
Impressive Trading Volume
The first day of trading saw a total trading volume of $2.3 billion across all the products. Additionally, the conversion of the preexisting $2.3 billion from Grayscale’s GBTC fund into a spot bitcoin ETF on Wednesday brought the total trading volume from the 11 issuers to $4.6 billion, as reported by Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.
