Gold ETFs Lose Billions in 2024, Bitcoin ETFs Surge

In 2024, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track gold have seen billions of dollars in outflows, standing in stark contrast to those focused on the spot price of Bitcoin. Eric Balchunas, an intelligence analyst from Bloomberg, highlighted in a post on February 14 that the top 14 gold ETFs experienced a loss of $2.4 billion in investments this year.

Out of these, only three have witnessed slight increases in investment: VanEck Merk Gold Shares, FT Vest Gold Strategy Target Income ETF, and Proshares UltraShort Gold. The largest withdrawals were observed in BlackRock’s iShares Gold Trust Micro and iShares Gold Trust, losing $230.4 million and $423.6 million, respectively.

Conversely, the 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs that have been approved have collectively attracted $3.89 billion in new investments and have seen unprecedented trading volume since their debut on January 11, based on early data from Farside.

Portfolio manager Bitcoin Munger noted the significant shift, stating, “Bitcoin is not only attracting more investments but gold is also losing assets under management at a worrying pace across several ETFs.”

Despite these trends, Balchunas doesn’t believe that investors in gold ETFs are necessarily switching to Bitcoin ETFs en masse. He suggests the shift might be more attributed to the fear of missing out on U.S. equity gains.

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