bitcoin rebounded on Tuesday, gaining around 6% in the last 24 hours after a sharp sell-off at the start of the week. The rally helped fuel heavy activity in cryptocurrency-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs), especially BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which was among the most traded ETFs in the US during the day.
IBIT recorded about $3.7 billion in trading volume on Tuesday, outperforming the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which recorded $3.28 billion, according to Barchart data. This puts BlackRock’s bitcoin fund in rare company, alongside some of the most liquid and widely held ETFs on the market.
The increase in volume may be related to bitcoin’s price recovery, but it also came a day after Vanguard, which had long resisted cryptocurrencies, said it would begin allowing bitcoin ETFs and cryptocurrency mutual funds to trade on its brokerage platform.
BlackRock’s bitcoin funds have quickly become a cornerstone of the company’s product line, despite launching less than two years ago. IBIT alone currently holds $66.3 billion in net assets and has become the company’s highest-income ETF. This is notable considering that BlackRock manages more than 1,400 ETFs and has $13.4 trillion in total assets under management.
Cryptocurrencies in general also traded higher on Tuesday, with ether XRP and all gaining around 7% in the last 24 hours. Cardano’s native token ADA led the race with 14%. Chainlink token LINK also rose 11% after Grayscale filed a new ETF linked to the token on NYSE Arca on Tuesday.
The rebound in bitcoin prices on Tuesday had an impact on cryptocurrency-related stocks. Shares of Strategy (MSTR), which has more than 174,000 BTC on its balance sheet, rose 6%. Trading platform Robinhood (HOOD), which offers crypto services alongside stocks, gained 2%. Bullish (BLSH), the parent company of CoinDesk, rose 5%, and Circle (CRLC), the company behind the USDC stablecoin, added 4%.
Coinbase (COIN) moved in the opposite direction. Its shares fell 5% after a group of shareholders filed a lawsuit on Monday accusing company executives of engaging in a years-long scheme to dump billions of dollars in stock while deceiving investors. The lawsuit claims that insiders took advantage of inflated valuations following Coinbase’s public listing in 2021 to cash out at the expense of long-term shareholders.
The outlook for bitcoin mining stocks looked less rosy. Despite the overall cryptocurrency market rally, most miners were trading in the red on Tuesday. Iren (IREN) stock led the declines with a 15% drop, followed by Cipher Mining (CIFR), which fell 10%, and TeraWulf (WULF), which fell 7%.
