Spot Bitcoin ETFs in U.S. See Record Inflows, Surging 175% Year-Over-Year
U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have experienced a massive 175% year-over-year growth in inflows during the early weeks of 2025. From January 13 to February 5, the total net inflows amounted to $4.4 billion, compared to $1.6 billion during the same period last year.
These spot Bitcoin ETFs have rapidly become one of the most successful ETF launches, accumulating a total of $40.6 billion in net inflows. Meanwhile, the BlackRock iShares Trust (IBIT) has seen a total of $40.7 billion in net inflows, highlighting strong investor interest. Despite this, Grayscale’s GBTC has seen outflows of $21.9 billion, somewhat offsetting the total.
The focus now is whether these inflows are driven by investors taking long positions in Bitcoin or if they reflect basis trading strategies. In basis trading, investors buy Bitcoin in the spot market while simultaneously selling futures contracts that trade at a premium to the spot price. Currently, there’s about a 10% premium, which is expected to shrink as the spot price converges with the futures market at contract expiry.
Data from Glassnode reveals a decline in open interest on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), from 180,099 BTC to 168,549 BTC, suggesting that the inflows are more likely from long-term investment rather than short-term basis trading.
