Silver has existed since dying stars started spewing the metal out billions of years ago. Bitcoin is 15 – but it’s already a bigger deal in the U.S. ETF market.
Bitcoin ETFs had more assets than silver ETFs the instant the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved them last week, and trailed only gold among commodity-focused U.S. ETFs.
Thanks to the conversion of the existing Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an ETF, there was immediately almost $30 billion stashed in bitcoin ETFs, according to data compiled by CoinDesk. Silver ETFs have combined assets of about $11 billion, according to a etfdb.com.
The only commodity that remains more popular is gold – which bitcoin is often called a digital version of – with roughly $95 billion.
“This was way beyond my short term expectation but is a fantastic validation of bitcoin’s role as a reserve product and of the demand for bitcoin exposure in financial markets,” 21Shares co-founder Ophelia Snyder, who launched one of the ETFs in partnership with Ark Invest, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The launch of bitcoin ETFs earlier this month marked a historic event not just for the cryptocurrency community but for ETFs, too. The newly launched funds saw roughly $894 million in net inflows within the first three days of trading, significantly higher than most fresh ETFs bring in.