Bitcoin bounced back on Tuesday, rising about 6% over the past 24 hours after a sharp selloff to start the week. The rally helped drive major activity in crypto-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs), notably BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which was among the most traded ETFs in the US for the day.
IBIT saw about $3.7 billion in trading volume Tuesday, outpacing the S&P 500 ETF from Vanguard ( VOO ), which registered $3.28 billion, according to data from Barchart. That puts BlackRock’s bitcoin fund in rare company with some of the most liquid and widespread ETFs on the market.
The increase in volume may be linked to bitcoin’s price recovery, but it also came a day after Vanguard, which had long been resistant to crypto, said it would begin allowing bitcoin ETFs and crypto mutual funds to trade on its brokerage platform.
BlackRock’s bitcoin funds have quickly become a cornerstone of the firm’s product lineup, despite launching less than two years ago. IBIT alone now holds $66.3 billion in net assets and has become the company’s largest income-generating ETF. That’s remarkable considering BlackRock manages over 1,400 ETFs and has $13.4 trillion in total assets under management.
Cryptos across the board also traded higher on Tuesday with Ether XRP and all up about 7% over the past 24 hours. Cardano’s native token, ADA, led the race with 14%. Chainlink’s token, LINK, was also 11% higher after Grayscale debuted a new ETF linked to the token on NYSE Arca on Tuesday.
The surge in bitcoin prices on Tuesday rippled through crypto-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, rose 2%. Bullish ( BLSH ), CoinDesk’s parent company, rose 5%, and Circle ( CRLC ), the firm 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 unload billions of dollars on stock while misleading investors. The suit alleges that insiders took advantage of inflated valuations following Coinbase’s 2021 public listing to cash out at the expense of long-term shareholders.
The picture in bitcoin mining stocks looked less rosy. Despite the broader crypto market’s recovery, most miners traded in the red on Tuesday. Shares in Iren (IREN) led the decline, down 15%, followed by Cipher Mining (CIFR), which fell 10%, and TeraWulf (WULF), which fell 7%.
