Bitcoin ETF trading volume tops $1B amid crypto crash — Galaxy

Trading volumes for Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) surged past $1 billion at the start of trading on Aug. 5, as crashing markets triggered “extremely elevated” trading activity across crypto, Alex Thorn, head of research at asset manager Galaxy Digital, said in a post on the X platform. 

After only 20 minutes of trading, Bitcoin ETFs have clocked more than $1.3 billion in trading volume, with iShares Bitcoin Trust seeing the highest churn at upward of $875 million, according to the post.

Thorn expects BTC ETFs to see net inflows from “dip buying” as investors clamor to take advantage of a roughly 8% drawdown in spot BTC prices since Aug. 4. The downturn was led by Ether (ETH), which dropped upwards of 21% after funds including Jump Trading and Paradigm VC sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Ether, according to an Aug. 5 report by QCP Group.

Analysts say Jump has already sold over $377 million in ETH and may intend to liquidate as much as $481 million in total.

The overnight sell-off compounded a worsening macro environment that has rattled all asset classes. The S&P 500 stock index is down more than 5% since Aug. 1.

According to the report, “Macro sentiment has also worsened following poor US unemployment data last Friday. Additionally, huge unwinds across all assets [have] caused volatility to spike sharply.”

Japan’s central bank raised interest rates on July 30, forcing traders to quickly unwind positions that sought to capitalize on the country’s cheap borrowing costs.

Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, told Cointelegraph he expects new crypto investment to slow down until the market settles:

“The market structure, including fiat-to-crypto on-ramps, has been weak for months [...] it’s unlikely that significant players will invest amid high volatility and unpredictable prices. Many still need to exit positions and deleverage their portfolios.”