Morgan Stanley‘s Bitcoin Trust (MSBT), the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund offered by a US bank, recorded $30.6 million in inflows on its opening day of trading. The fund began trading on the NYSE Arca on Wednesday, generating $34 million in total trading volume. That figure came in slightly above the $30 million first-day volume forecast issued by Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. The result was described as respectable, though not a standout performance.
As of April 8, MSBT held 444.4 BTC, valued at approximately $31.7 million, representing around 0.03% of the estimated 1.29 million BTC held collectively by all US spot Bitcoin ETFs. Among its peers on the day, MSBT trailed only BlackRock‘s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which attracted $40 million in inflows. Morgan Stanley’s fund carries the lowest fee among competing products, positioning it as a cost-competitive option in an increasingly crowded market.
Analysts note that the debut is more significant as a signal of traditional finance’s continued interest in Bitcoin ETFs than as a direct challenge to BlackRock’s dominance. However, Morgan Stanley is entering a market roughly two years after the initial launch wave, and the bar set by the 2024 class of Bitcoin ETF debuts remains considerably higher. Balchunas nonetheless suggested MSBT is on track to rank among the top ETF launches of the past year, citing a $60 million volume threshold relative to recent funds such as the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL), the Canary XRP ETF (XRPC), and the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM).
Despite the positive inflows from MSBT and IBIT, broader market activity on the day was negative. The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) saw outflows of $79 million, while the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) recorded approximately $75 million in outflows, according to data from Farside. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) added a further $11 million in redemptions, bringing total daily outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs to $124.5 million.
Wednesday’s outflows marked a second consecutive day of net selling across the sector. This followed $159 million in outflows on Tuesday, after the funds had attracted $471 million in inflows on Monday — the largest single-day inflow figure recorded since late February. The back-to-back outflow days underscored the volatility in investor sentiment across the Bitcoin ETF space.
MSBT’s opening performance stands in contrast to the January 2024 launch wave that followed the Securities and Exchange Commission‘s approval of the first US spot Bitcoin ETFs. On their respective debut days, GBTC and IBIT handled $2.3 billion and $1 billion in trading volume. IBIT attracted around $112 million in first-day inflows, while GBTC saw $95 million in outflows as investors rotated out of the legacy product. Those figures set a benchmark that newer entrants have found difficult to match.
Originally reported by CoinTelegraph.
