Fidelity’s FBTC, rather than GBTC, led the charge in outflows on Wednesday, raising concerns among bullish investors.
Despite Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell dismissing the possibility of a rate hike, investors rapidly offloaded U.S.-based spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Wednesday. This resulted in a combined net outflow of $563.7 million across 11 ETFs, marking the largest withdrawal since their inception on January 11. The trend continued a five-day streak of losses, with investors withdrawing nearly $1.2 billion from the ETFs since April 24, according to data from Farside.
Fidelity’s FBTC saw the most significant outflows on Wednesday, totaling $191.1 million. This trend is concerning for bullish sentiments, given that FBTC and BlackRock’s IBIT had consistently attracted funds in the first quarter, often offsetting the significant outflows from the relatively expensive Grayscale ETF (GBTC).
On Wednesday, GBTC experienced the second-largest outflow of $167.4 million, followed by ARKB’s $98.1 million and IBIT’s $36.9 million. Despite Powell’s net-dovish approach providing support for risk assets, including bitcoin, other funds also experienced significant withdrawals. A dovish stance indicates a preference for prioritizing employment and economic growth over tightening liquidity excessively.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the Fed opted to maintain the benchmark interest rate unchanged between 5.25% and 5.5%, as anticipated. Powell underscored the strength of the economy, signaling no inclination to cut rates while dispelling concerns about potential renewed rate hikes or liquidity tightening sparked by recent disappointing inflation figures.
Similar to other risk assets, bitcoin is sensitive to anticipated shifts in liquidity conditions. Following Powell’s comments, it briefly rallied from $56,620 to $59,430. Concurrently, the yield on the 10- and two-year Treasury notes declined alongside the dollar index.
However, BTC’s rebound was short-lived, retreating to $57,300 at the time of writing. Earlier this week, Hong Kong introduced Asia’s inaugural spot bitcoin and ether (ETH) ETFs, but they debuted with lackluster volumes, exacerbating the sentiment downturn in the crypto market.