By Ian Salisbury
The race to become the go-to Bitcoin exchange-traded fund has a winner: BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, which has attracted over $50 billion in the 11 months since it launched. It's over twice the size of No. 2 Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and No. 3 Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin.
The iShares ETF's dominance has accelerated as Donald Trump's election sent Bitcoin surging above $100,000 on Dec. 4, ending this past week over $101,000. Since the election, investors funneled a net $9.3 billion into Bitcoin ETFs, says FactSet -- with $8.2 billion to iShares and $1.4 billion to the Fidelity fund. (Inflows total more than total net flows because some funds have outflows.)
The iShares ETF trades about 43 million shares a day, compared with six million for Fidelity and less than four million for Grayscale, says Morningstar. Investor fees for both the Fidelity and iShares ETFs amount to 0.25%, according to their websites, while Grayscale charges 1.5%, a legacy of pre-ETF conversion days. Since most Bitcoin ETFs (other than Grayscale) are similarly priced, trading costs may be a difference maker between funds.
Higher trading volumes typically translate into lower bid-and-ask spreads. While spreads fluctuate, investors pay a markup of about a penny a share to trade the iShares ETF, says Morningstar analyst Bryan Armour, smallest among Bitcoin ETFs. And since spring, iShares has become the default option for Bitcoin ETF market makers.
sWrite to Ian Salisbury at ian.salisbury@barrons.com
Last Week
Markets
The Assad regime in Syria fell to insurgents after 13 years of civil war. Assad fled to Moscow. Oil prices rose. President-elect Trump said he had no plans to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. China stocks rose as Beijing signaled a looser monetary policy. Moody's downgraded France's credit rating. November inflation was mostly unchanged at 2.7%. On the week, the Dow industrials fell 1.8%, the S&P 500 was off 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite, which broke 20,000 for the first time, rose 0.3%.
Companies
The Biden administration boosted tariffs on Chinese clean-tech imports. China began an antitrust probe of Nvidia. Workday and Apollo Global will join the S&P 500 index on Dec. 23; Qorvo and Amentum were dropped. T-Mobile US's CEO warned on 4Q earnings. General Motors closed its Cruise robo-taxi project after investing $10 billion in it. Luigi Mangione was charged with the murder of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson.
Deals
Ad giant Omnicom agreed to buy Interpublic Group for some $13 billion...Packager Novolex, backed by Apollo Global, sealed a $6.7 billion buy of Pactiv Evergreen, including debt...Buyout firm GTCR sold insurance brokerage AssuredPartners to Arthur J. Gallagher for $13.5 billion...Activist Barington Capital took a stake in Macy's...The Wall Street Journal reported that Walgreens Boots Alliance was in talks to sell itself to Sycamore Partners...A federal judge blocked Kroger from buying Albertsons, which then sued Kroger.
Next Week
Tuesday 12/17
The Census Bureau reports retail and food-services sales for November. Consensus estimate is for a 0.5% month-over-month increase, after a 0.4% gain in October. Excluding autos, sales are expected to rise 0.4%, three-tenths of a percentage point more than previously.
Wednesday 12/18
Micron Technology releases quarterly results on Wednesday, followed by FedEx and Nike on Thursday.
The Federal Open Market Committee announces its monetary-policy decision and releases its quarterly Summary of Economic Projections. The FOMC is widely expected to cut the federal-funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.25%-4.50%. While the forecast for the December meeting seems clear, the outlook for 2025 is much hazier, with traders currently anticipating between two and three quarter-point interest-rate cuts by year end.
Friday 12/20
The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases the personal consumption expenditures price index for November. Economists forecast a 2.5% year-over-year rise, two-tenths of a percentage point more than in October. The core PCE price index is seen rising 2.9%, compared with 2.8% previously.
The Numbers
38%
Increase in trading of U.S. equities in November, from a year earlier, hitting levels of the 2021 meme craze.
$312 B
Shipments from China to the U.S. in November, highest since the pandemic, a result of tariff concerns.
$51 B
Estimated annual global losses from thunderstorms, over a third of total natural-catastrophe losses.
1.1 M
International Energy Agency estimate of demand for oil in 2025 in barrels per day, up from 840,00 in 2024.
Write to Robert Teitelman at bob.teitelman@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 13, 2024 20:12 ET (01:12 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments