Several recently launched spot Bitcoin ETFs now rank alongside the largest commodity ETFs in terms of assets under management (AUM).
Combining VettaETF’s list of commodity ETFs with its list of blockchain ETFs produces the following results:
Rank Ticker Name AUM (in millions of dollars) 1 GLD SPDR Gold Shares 56,206.8 2 IAU iShares Gold Trust 26,062.5 3 GBTC Grayscale Bitcoin Trust 20,519 4 SLV iShares Silver Trust 10,120.2 5 GLDM SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust 6,378.47 6 PDBC Invesco Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF 4,584.34 7 IBIT IShares Bitcoin Trust 2,837 8 SGOL abrdn Physical Gold Shares ETF 2,748.48 9 FBTC Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund 2,535 10 FTGC First Trust Global Tactical Commodity Strategy Fund 2,285.25
That data indicates that Grayscale’s GBTC has $20.5 billion in AUM, making it the third largest commodity ETF after two gold ETFs.
Meanwhile, BlackRock’s IBIT is the seventh largest ETF on the list, with $2.8 billion in AUM. Fidelity’s FBTC is the ninth largest, with $2.5 billion in AUM.
Two other spot Bitcoin ETFs are not shown in the above chart but rank among the top 25 commodity ETFs by assets under management. ARK 21Shares’s ARKB fund has $665 million in AUM and ranks at #25. Bitwise’s BITB fund has $641 million in AUM and ranks at position #26.
BTC ETFs are generally considered commodities ETFs
Though VettaETF does not include spot Bitcoin ETFs within its list of commodity ETFs, asset managers generally consider this the case.
BlackRock, for example, labels IBIT a commodity ETF on its website. Similarly, Ark Invest refers to ARKB as an Indexed Commodity ETF. Grayscale, meanwhile, has called GBTC the second-largest commodity-based ETF — a statement made before its current status as the third-largest ETF of that type.
However, this is not universal: Bitwise and Fidelity do not appear to label their products as commodity ETFs. Most asset managers also acknowledge in a disclaimer that their fund is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (which partially affects a fund’s engagement in commodities trading) and is not a commodity pool under the Commodity Exchange Act.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs gained approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January. SEC chair Gary Gensler referred to the funds as “ETPs holding [a] non-security commodity, Bitcoin” in his approval statement.
