On May 21, investors poured $609 million into spot ETFs based on digital gold, amounting to $2.3 billion over the past six days.
This trend coincided with the first cryptocurrency reaching a new all-time high above $109,000. On May 22, prices surged past the $111,000 mark.
Total inflows into these products increased to $43.38 billion. AUM reached $129.02 billion.
BlackRock’s Influence
On May 21, a significant contribution to the positive trend came from BlackRock’s IBIT ($530.6 million).
According to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, BlackRock’s bitcoin fund has climbed into the top five exchange-traded funds by inflows this year (~$9 billion). Notably, $6.5 billion was invested in the instrument over the past month. In April, IBIT ranked 47th in this list.
$IBIT has worked its way into the top 5 ETF in YTD flows with +$9b, just passing $BIL. This is wild bc just one month ago it was ranked 47th, but has since gone Full Pac-Man with a +$6.5b spree. As gold and cash ETFs slip down, the leaderboard is slowly turning back into 2024. pic.twitter.com/pyosSuuptU
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) May 21, 2025
Previously, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan predicted the inclusion of BTC-ETF in the client offerings of Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and UBS by the end of 2025.
As reported in Bernstein, institutional purchases were identified as one of the five key factors driving the continued growth of the first cryptocurrency.