The Spot Bitcoin ETFs Are Now One Year Old: Here’s How They Fared

On January 11, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs turned one year old, and what a year it has been for them!

Within the past twelve months, Wall Street’s perception of Bitcoin changed completely. 

It seems like (almost) everyone loves Bitcoin now. 

Especially BlackRock. The largest asset manager in the world established itself as the king in Bitcoin ETF land, issuing the fastest-growing ETF in history. 

That change of sentiment towards Bitcoin will also help boost adoption among more corporates as Bitcoin is starting to establish itself as a treasury asset.  

BlackRock is the king amongst spot Bitcoin ETFs  👑

There are certain moments in your life when you know where you were when it happened. 

One of these days was January 11, 2024, when Bitcoin officially landed on Wall Street. 

Before the launch, there was still a degree of skepticism about Bitcoin among many traditional investors. Is it a Ponzi scheme? Who invented it? Is it harmful to the environment? 

However, once the biggest asset managers in the world started speaking positively about the digital asset, most, if not all, skepticism went out of the window. 

The spot Bitcoin ETFs arrived on Wall Street with a bang! 

Investors started buying shares immediately and in a span of a year, all ETFs combined hold over $100 billion in assets under management. 

Not bad for “magic Internet money.” 😁

Just like in every market, you will have leaders sitting at the top of the charts, dominating over everyone else. 

With the spot Bitcoin ETFs, that’s clearly BlackRock. 

Not only has its Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) been the fastest-growing ETF in Wall Street history, but it also surpassed BlackRock’s gold ETF in the first year by a factor of ten! 

The largest asset manager in the world currently holds over 527,000 BTC or just over 2.4 percent of the 21 million coins available. 

And that’s good for Bitcoin.

Not only have the constant opposing arguments against Bitcoin de facto stopped, but different types of investors, such as pension funds and family offices, can now also invest in Bitcoin indirectly. 

Options on spot Bitcoin ETFs ushered in a new era in Bitcoin’s history 👀

While the spot Bitcoin ETFs were the central story in 2024 for Wall Street adoption, we also saw another significant milestone later in the year. 

In October, the SEC and other regulatory bodies announced they’re considering allowing options on spot Bitcoin ETFs. 

They took a few weeks to do their due diligence, but they gradually approved individual ETFs to issue options. 

Not surprisingly, the biggest one out of the bunch is BlackRock, which currently has over $10 billion in open interest. Grayscale is the second largest issuer, with just under $310 million in open interest. 

Options ushered in a new era for spot Bitcoin ETF investors to either trade Bitcoin’s volatility or use these instruments as a hedge in their portfolios. 

I look forward to seeing how the interest in these derivatives will evolve in 2025. 

2025 will be the year when more companies put Bitcoin on their balance sheets 💪

I usually end my newsletter with an episode of my Proof of Words Podcast. This time, I want to focus on one key topic I keep hearing and speaking about: 

2025 will be the year when more companies (maybe even some FAANG companies) will put Bitcoin on their balance sheets. 

If the last Bitcoin cycle has taught us anything, it’s this: Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset is an absolute no-brainer and a potentially substantial value add for shareholders in any company. 

That’s why we at Samara Asset Group are buying and HODLing Bitcoin. 

I’m convinced that this strategy will have a breakout year in 2025. Thanks to the ETFs, institutional investors are now adopting BTC more, and the better Bitcoin performs, the more new money will flow into Bitcoin. 

We have already seen the adoption of smaller public companies. I believe this trend will continue to grow. 

But this week, we also heard that a proposal for Meta to add Bitcoin to its treasury has been submitted to the board. 

More shareholders have started noticing companies' immense opportunity with Bitcoin and will bring up this strategy more. 

All it takes is the first domino to fall and one of the larger companies to adopt Bitcoin as a treasury reserve as well. 

Considering how few companies held Bitcoin on their balance sheets just two years ago and where we are currently, I believe this might happen soon. 

And who knows, maybe Mark Zuckerberg will notice and consider the proposal. After all, he still has the vast majority of voting rights on the board, has been outspoken about BTC in the past, and even has a goat named Bitcoin…

Bitcoin is a household name now, and if any of these big companies want to safeguard their future, they should consider Bitcoin sooner rather than later. 

Your fellow stacker in sats, 

Patrick Lowry