It was another big day of outflows from Grayscale's Bitcoin ETF, but ETF analyst Eric Balchunas believes they will soon slow down.
GBTC has seen outflows of as much as $358 million, but one theory suggests it's almost
Grayscale's bitcoin crypto asset manager
BTC exchange traded fund (ETF) recorded another day of high outflows as nearly $359 million left the fund on March 21, but analysts believe the exodus may soon be over.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's (GBTC) net outflows of $358.8 million on March 21 follow a huge week of outflows, with March 18's $642 million being the largest day recorded, according to Farside Investors.
GBTC outflows have decreased since Monday. Source: Farside Investors
The latest data shows that total GBTC outflows this week totaled $1.8 billion, marking the fourth consecutive day of net outflows from all 10 bitcoin ETFs.
Bloomberg ETF Senior Analyst Eric Balchunas speculated in a March 21 post X that most of Grayscale's outflows could end soon, and that most of them are due to crypto company bankruptcies due to their "size and consistency."
"Any outflows from Gemini/Genisis are likely to buy BTC [for] cash, and as a result the market is holding up," Balchunas said.
"The takeaway: the worst is [probably] near the end. When that happens, only retail will remain, and flows should more closely resemble the February trickle," he added.
As of March 21, Grayscale reported that its Bitcoin Trust has a total of $23.2 billion in assets under management. GBTC has lost $13.6 billion since its conversion to an ETF on January 11.
Like Balchunas, an independent researcher operating under the pseudonym ErgoBTC suggested that GBTC's outflows of around $1.1 billion over the past few weeks likely came from bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Genesis.
"The resulting volumes of activity and timing of transfers from GBTC to Genesis are quite consistent," ErgoBTC said. "There simply aren't many shipments of 2,000 BTC per day, so it's likely that GBTC's outflows and Genesis' inflows are linked."
Pseudonymous cryptocurrency market commentator WhalePanda expressed a similar view, pointing to Genesis' March 19 statement, which said the company would return assets to creditors "in kind" - meaning the non-existent lender would sell GBTC shares for Bitcoin.
On February 14, Genesis received U.S. court approval to begin liquidating its $1.3 billion worth of GBTC shares to repay creditors.
Almost a month earlier, collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX sold 22 million GBTC shares worth nearly $1 billion, completely liquidating all its holdings .
