Eric Balchunas of Bloomberg noted that the U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) market began 2025 with impressive force. Asset and management inflows for this sector set new records during 2024, while 2025 started with strong performance.
On January 24, Balchunas praised U.S.-spot Bitcoin ETFs through a post on X (formerly Twitter) platform. The year begins with substantial fresh capital flowing into core funds, including IBIT from BlackRock, FBTC from Fidelity, and the combined ARKB product of Ark and 21Shares. BlackRock’s IBIT attracted the largest investment with $2.3 billion inflows, although Fidelity’s FBTC received $1.1 billion.
“The spot bitcoin ETFs quietly on fire to start the year, with $4.2b in flows which is 6% of all ETF flows,” he noted.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs Now Rival Gold Assets
Since their market entry in late 2023, Bitcoin ETFs have collectively received more than $40 billion in investor capital through net inflows. Tremendous investor trust toward cryptocurrency markets has driven the AUM of these funds beyond $121 billion.
The net assets of spot Bitcoin ETFs have recently reached levels equal to gold spot ETFs, indicating Bitcoin’s rising importance as a store of value, according to Balchunas’ statement. The funds demonstrated superior performance compared to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ETFs, whose AUM total stands at $117 billion.
The spot Bitcoin ETF market dominance has arisen due to its projected 127% return during 2024. Leading ESG ETFs, such as the Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF and iShares Global Clean Energy ETF, now trail behind in terms of total assets.
The increase in altcoin fund application submissions accompanies the continuing dominance of spot Bitcoin funds. Applications for investment funds related to Solana, XRP, Litecoin, and Dogecoin are triggering increased market activity. Balchunas forecasts that altcoin ETFs will not erode the dominant position held by spot Bitcoin ETFs.
“For more context, Ether ETFs are like +$130m YTD, which isn’t bad, but this is why BTC is on another level and will utterly dominate this category. Even if we see like 10 altcoin ETFs roll out, they’ll draw headlines but fight over crumbs (albeit sizable ones) relatively speaking,” he posted on X.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced ongoing daily investment flow growth at the beginning of 2025. For the sixth time in January, the funds delivered $188 million in net inflows, which occurred on January 23. Two major inflow events occurred during January when Bitcoin ETFs attracted more than $1 billion each day on both January 17 and January 21.
The market reacted to former President Trump’s crypto executive order that caused Bitcoin ETFs’ net inflows to decrease to $188 million on January 23.
U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds continue to solidify their status within the broader financial domain through their impressive adoption by institutional and retail investors. Research shows these funds will stay important market drivers as the cryptocurrency market grows because new altcoin exchange-traded fund options emerge.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs continue “quietly on fire” according to Balchunas, while showing no indication of slowing momentum.
