Spot Bitcoin ETF investors may have shown themselves not to be momentum chasers this year.
It’s no secret that BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has been a huge success since it opened in January 2024, but data compiled by Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas puts that success through another lens.
IBIT ranks sixth among all ETF inflows so far in 2025, bringing more than $25 billion in cash to investors. At No. 1 is Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF (VOO) with $145 billion in inflows, and at No. 25 is the iShares S&P 100 ETF (OEF) with $10 billion in inflows.
Balchunas noted that out of the entire list of the top 25 ETFs by inflows, IBIT is the only one with a negative return this year — down 9.6% as of midday Friday. Even the SPDR Gold ETF (GLD) – which ranks eighth at $20.8 billion – has attracted less capital than IBIT despite a massive 65% gain in 2025.
“Crypto Twitter’s knee-jerk reaction is to complain [BTC] Balchunas said. “But the real takeaway is that despite the negative return (baby boomers opening HODL clinics), it still ranked sixth.”
“That’s a really good sign in the long run,” he continued. “If you can make $25 billion in a bad year, imagine the traffic potential in a good year.”
