The Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise, Matt Hougan shared that Bitcoin ETFs are being supported by investment advisors faster than any other ETFs in history.
This claim somehow challenges macro strategist Jim Bianco’s view that the adoption rate is small.
Jim is wrong here: Investment advisors are adopting bitcoin ETFs faster than any new ETF in history.
Let's look at his own data, focused on IBIT, the BlackRock ETF.
Per his table, IBIT has attracted $1.45 billion in net flows from investment advisors. He calls this "small"… https://t.co/0Sis9lIWDp
— Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) September 9, 2024
Bitcoin adoption is a process, not an event
While this amount is only a small part of the total $46 billion invested in Bitcoin ETFs, Hougan believes that the quick adoption by advisors is especially fast compared to other types of ETFs.
While the overall inflow into Bitcoin ETFs includes investments from a wide variety of sources, the speed at which investment advisors are adding these ETFs to their portfolios is unprecedented.
This fast adoption is a pretty clear signal for the growing confidence among advisors as they’re start to realize Bitcoin’s long-term potential.
The market demand for Bitcoin is growing
Supporting Hougan’s perspective, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas points out that the $1.5 billion allocated by advisors to IBIT is organic inflow compared to other ETFs launched this year.
Balchunas told that this level of commitment from advisors shows really strong interest in Bitcoin ETFs, even though they make up a smaller portion of the overall market, as new asset.
Bitcoin is still in its early stages of adoption, regardless of the actual level of investors’ attention.
There is a lot of media coverage, but in reality, very few people actually hold Bitcoin. Large investment funds are offering various financial products based on Bitcoin, and some countries and multinational companies are treating it as a reserve asset or participating in its mining.
Yet, as a monetary asset, Bitcoin remains relatively small and less widely adopted.
How many Bitcoiners are out there?
The number of retail holders who keep Bitcoin in self-custody is likely very low. For example, if we consider $1,000 as a reasonable amount for short-term savings, there are only about 10 million addresses that hold this balance.
While we can’t know the exact number of savings accounts worldwide, if there were only 1 billion, that would still mean a 100 times difference compared to the 10 million addresses holding this amount Bitcoin.
This means that the adoption of Bitcoin is still in its early stages.
