Bitcoin rebounded on Tuesday, gaining about 6% in the past 24 hours after a sharp sell-off earlier in the week. The rebound helped spur strong activity in crypto-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs), particularly BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which was among the most traded ETFs in the U.S. for the day.
IBIT recorded trading volume of about $3.7 billion on Tuesday, surpassing Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which recorded $3.28 billion, according to Barchart data. This puts BlackRock’s Bitcoin fund in rare company, alongside some of the most liquid and widely held ETFs on the market.
The surge in volumes may be linked to the recovery in Bitcoin prices, but it also came a day after Vanguard, which has long been resistant to cryptocurrencies, announced that it would begin allowing Bitcoin ETFs and cryptocurrency mutual funds to trade on its brokerage platform.
BlackRock’s Bitcoin funds have quickly become the cornerstone of the company’s product line, despite launching less than two years ago. IBIT alone now holds $66.3 billion in net assets and has become the company’s primary income-generating ETF. This is remarkable given that BlackRock manages more than 1,400 ETFs and manages total assets of $13.4 trillion.
Cryptos across the board also traded higher on Tuesday, with ether XRP and all gaining around 7% in the last 24 hours. Cardano’s native token, ADA, led the race with 14%. Chainlink’s token LINK was also 11% higher after Grayscale launched a new ETF linked to the token on NYSE Arca on Tuesday.
The rebound in bitcoin prices on Tuesday reverberated through crypto-related stocks. Shares of Strategy (MSTR), which holds over 174,000 BTC on its balance sheet, rose 6%. Trading platform Robinhood (HOOD), which offers crypto services alongside stocks, gained 2%. Bullish (BLSH), the parent company of CoinDesk, climbed 5% and Circle (CRLC), the company behind the stablecoin USDC, added 4%.
Coinbase (COIN) has moved in the opposite direction. Its shares fell 5% after a group of shareholders filed a lawsuit Monday accusing company executives of engaging in a years-long scheme to dump billions of dollars of stock while deceiving investors. The suit claims that insiders took advantage of inflated valuations after Coinbase’s public listing in 2021 to cash in at the expense of long-term shareholders.
The situation for Bitcoin mining stocks looked less rosy. Despite the broader crypto market rebounding, most miners traded in the red on Tuesday. Shares of Iren (IREN) led the decline with a 15% decline, followed by Cipher Mining (CIFR), down 10%, and TeraWulf (WULF), down 7%.
