Think of IBIT as a stock in the S&P 500
A message from your CEO on how IBIT works and the future
Dec. 10, 2024
Market Cap: $51B
Bitcoin: 531,826 (2.66%)
Our goal at IBIT is to become the biggest liquidity pool for Bitcoin from 9:30am-4pm Monday thru Friday in the World. Think of us like a CEX, competing for volume against Coinbase and Binance.
There’s a dozen ETF’s that collectively hold 5.66%. IBIT is emerging as the dominant ETF.
It’s important to understand how Bitcoin is traded outside of the United States. The perpetual futures market is 3x the spot Bitcoin market, yet perpetual futures aren’t traded in the United States.
Traditional Futures have a set expiration date for the contract to settle. Perpetual Futures have no expiration date. This means traders can hold positions indefinitely, allowing for long-term strategies without the need to constantly roll over the contracts.
To keep the perpetual futures price aligned with the spot rice of Bitcoin, a “funding rate” is regularly applied, where traders on the side with a higher position (long or short) pay a fee to the other side.
The average difference between the spot price and the perpetual future is typically very low, fluctuating around zero, as the “funding rate” mechanism works to keep the price aligned, except in times of high volatility.
The size of the perpetual futures market impacts the spot price as many of the arbitrage strategies involve owning both. When the perpetual futures market moves out of step with the spot price it can trigger large buy/sell orders on the spot market.
IBIT operates conceptually like perpetual futures. It tracks the spot price and when price gap gets too wide its forced to buy or sell Bitcoin, aligning the prices.
For example, Today IBIT traded $2.7B and had a net inflow of $294M. Throughout the day, we sold about $200M to Coinbase, bought $500M from Coinbase, and handled $2B in house. When IBIT price is within about $200 of the spot price trading can be handled in house, giving us about a $400 liquidity window before needing to seek a secondary market to buy or sell.
When IBIT is trading near NAV the volume thins out on Coinbase as all of the trading is happening in house. When IBIT is engaged in heavy buying it moves the price on Coinbase and volume goes up. Look for this to become even more obvious the bigger we get.
The bigger that IBIT gets the more power it will have to move prices as it acts as it’s own CEX with a $400 window. If IBIT can become the biggest liquidity pool by growing to 10-20% of Bitcoin, the spot price will naturally align with the IBIT price. What makes this possible is the way the market is already decentralized with different exchanges. There are already price discrepancies between the exchanges. The perpetual futures market solves this problem by calculating a “mark price” which aggregates prices from multiple exchanges. If IBIT can become the biggest liquidity pool, that’s where the spot price will gravitate towards. When the spot price moves outside forcing IBIT to buy or sell it will be like stepping in front of a freight train until the spot price falls back within IBIT’s trading range.
We’re at 2.66% now, let’s see what this looks like at 5% and $100B Market Cap. We need market share now more than needing the price to go up.
Because Bitcoin is decentralized, there’s a need for Exchanges for people to trade. Because New York City is the financial capital of the world, it only makes sense that the biggest Exchange is located there. However, a traditional crypto Exchange is not going to take this position, it doesn’t mesh well with the way Wall Street operates today.
The ETF wrapper solves the integration issue. To them, it has the same qualities as a stock. Their clients can trade it out of their existing brokerage accounts, which is probably the only point that really matters to Wall Street. Why would an Advisor on Wall Street ever recommend you take money away from them and open an account at Coinbase so you can buy Bitcoin?
The ETF allows you to get your clients into Bitcoin without pulling money from your platform.
The ETF means it only trades on Wall Street hours, which is a plus.
Blackrock is the biggest asset manager in the world. They are the only one with the street credibility to sell Bitcoin as digital gold. Blackrock solves the trust issue on Wall Street.
There was always only going to be one ETF winner in terms of creating a big liquidity pool. This is where the traders will gravitate towards.
The uniqueness of the situation is what will allow Blackrock to declare NYC the most important exchange for this decentralized asset with IBIT as the conduit.
If IBIT becomes the biggest, it will dictate the price.
For retail traders, we offer you two unique features to protect you from yourself when investing in Bitcoin that Coinbase doesn’t.
The first is that Bitcoin isn’t marginable in our system. This protects you from yourself.
The second is that when you sell your Bitcoin, you can’t turn around and buy Shitcoins because we don’t offer them at our brokerage houses. There’s a mandatory cooling off period of 24-48 hours to move your money from our system to your bank account where you can then buy Shitcoins on a different platform.
In fact at IBIT, we’re trying to altogether decouple Bitcoin from the Alt Coins and instead link it to Gold.
In the past trading was denominated with the price of Bitcoin. This lead to selling Bitcoin in rallies and rolling that Bitcoin into the Alt Coin market. The ETF’s break this link to Alt Coins.
For Institutional big money we offer liquidity. Because IBIT trades on the Nasdaq all the brokerage houses have access and the spreads are tight.
If you’re a hedge fund that wants to place a $100 million bet on Bitcoin we offer the most liquidity on the way in and out.
Large trades can be matched.
We now offer Options. We support all strategies that involve holding IBIT.
Perhaps you have 1000 Bitcoin from long ago and are ready to cash out. We’ll chop it up into ETF shares and feed the beast.
Bitcoin that goes into IBIT doesn’t come out. We’ve only had 5 outflow days all year. This is what I’m watching.
@JoshMandell6@hillery_dan It looks ugly when you do it that way, especially when you factor in dividends. Last in first out basis, plus dividends, it's a loss any way you look at it
@Darkfost_Coc@cryptoquant_com@JA_Maartun What are your thoughts on timing? This is the 3rd time over 81k, the other 2 occurred after market close, so this is the first time over 81 with IBIT and the rest of the ETF's trading
Think of IBIT as a stock in the S&P 500
A message from your CEO on how IBIT works and the future
Dec. 10, 2024
Market Cap: $51B
Bitcoin: 531,826 (2.66%)
Our goal at IBIT is to become the biggest liquidity pool for Bitcoin from 9:30am-4pm Monday thru Friday in the World. Think of us like a CEX, competing for volume against Coinbase and Binance.
There’s a dozen ETF’s that collectively hold 5.66%. IBIT is emerging as the dominant ETF.
It’s important to understand how Bitcoin is traded outside of the United States. The perpetual futures market is 3x the spot Bitcoin market, yet perpetual futures aren’t traded in the United States.
Traditional Futures have a set expiration date for the contract to settle. Perpetual Futures have no expiration date. This means traders can hold positions indefinitely, allowing for long-term strategies without the need to constantly roll over the contracts.
To keep the perpetual futures price aligned with the spot rice of Bitcoin, a “funding rate” is regularly applied, where traders on the side with a higher position (long or short) pay a fee to the other side.
The average difference between the spot price and the perpetual future is typically very low, fluctuating around zero, as the “funding rate” mechanism works to keep the price aligned, except in times of high volatility.
The size of the perpetual futures market impacts the spot price as many of the arbitrage strategies involve owning both. When the perpetual futures market moves out of step with the spot price it can trigger large buy/sell orders on the spot market.
IBIT operates conceptually like perpetual futures. It tracks the spot price and when price gap gets too wide its forced to buy or sell Bitcoin, aligning the prices.
For example, Today IBIT traded $2.7B and had a net inflow of $294M. Throughout the day, we sold about $200M to Coinbase, bought $500M from Coinbase, and handled $2B in house. When IBIT price is within about $200 of the spot price trading can be handled in house, giving us about a $400 liquidity window before needing to seek a secondary market to buy or sell.
When IBIT is trading near NAV the volume thins out on Coinbase as all of the trading is happening in house. When IBIT is engaged in heavy buying it moves the price on Coinbase and volume goes up. Look for this to become even more obvious the bigger we get.
The bigger that IBIT gets the more power it will have to move prices as it acts as it’s own CEX with a $400 window. If IBIT can become the biggest liquidity pool by growing to 10-20% of Bitcoin, the spot price will naturally align with the IBIT price. What makes this possible is the way the market is already decentralized with different exchanges. There are already price discrepancies between the exchanges. The perpetual futures market solves this problem by calculating a “mark price” which aggregates prices from multiple exchanges. If IBIT can become the biggest liquidity pool, that’s where the spot price will gravitate towards. When the spot price moves outside forcing IBIT to buy or sell it will be like stepping in front of a freight train until the spot price falls back within IBIT’s trading range.
We’re at 2.66% now, let’s see what this looks like at 5% and $100B Market Cap. We need market share now more than needing the price to go up.
Because Bitcoin is decentralized, there’s a need for Exchanges for people to trade. Because New York City is the financial capital of the world, it only makes sense that the biggest Exchange is located there. However, a traditional crypto Exchange is not going to take this position, it doesn’t mesh well with the way Wall Street operates today.
The ETF wrapper solves the integration issue. To them, it has the same qualities as a stock. Their clients can trade it out of their existing brokerage accounts, which is probably the only point that really matters to Wall Street. Why would an Advisor on Wall Street ever recommend you take money away from them and open an account at Coinbase so you can buy Bitcoin?
The ETF allows you to get your clients into Bitcoin without pulling money from your platform.
The ETF means it only trades on Wall Street hours, which is a plus.
Blackrock is the biggest asset manager in the world. They are the only one with the street credibility to sell Bitcoin as digital gold. Blackrock solves the trust issue on Wall Street.
There was always only going to be one ETF winner in terms of creating a big liquidity pool. This is where the traders will gravitate towards.
The uniqueness of the situation is what will allow Blackrock to declare NYC the most important exchange for this decentralized asset with IBIT as the conduit.
If IBIT becomes the biggest, it will dictate the price.
For retail traders, we offer you two unique features to protect you from yourself when investing in Bitcoin that Coinbase doesn’t.
The first is that Bitcoin isn’t marginable in our system. This protects you from yourself.
The second is that when you sell your Bitcoin, you can’t turn around and buy Shitcoins because we don’t offer them at our brokerage houses. There’s a mandatory cooling off period of 24-48 hours to move your money from our system to your bank account where you can then buy Shitcoins on a different platform.
In fact at IBIT, we’re trying to altogether decouple Bitcoin from the Alt Coins and instead link it to Gold.
In the past trading was denominated with the price of Bitcoin. This lead to selling Bitcoin in rallies and rolling that Bitcoin into the Alt Coin market. The ETF’s break this link to Alt Coins.
For Institutional big money we offer liquidity. Because IBIT trades on the Nasdaq all the brokerage houses have access and the spreads are tight.
If you’re a hedge fund that wants to place a $100 million bet on Bitcoin we offer the most liquidity on the way in and out.
Large trades can be matched.
We now offer Options. We support all strategies that involve holding IBIT.
Perhaps you have 1000 Bitcoin from long ago and are ready to cash out. We’ll chop it up into ETF shares and feed the beast.
Bitcoin that goes into IBIT doesn’t come out. We’ve only had 5 outflow days all year. This is what I’m watching.
@tomyoungjr@darkside2030 The Fed's job is like parents of a teenager with a credit card spending problem or drug abuse. Parents eventually tire and cut their kids off and force reality. The Fed doesn't have that option with congress
@HODL15Capital It's actually quite disappointing isn't it? 🤔
There must have been a lot of rotation, too bad these numbers weren't higher, not sure if it means anything though?
@HODL15Capital Look at the 11:27am single minute for IBIT
11,982,344 shares or about $470m buy order, the same minute look at Coinbase spike to $69,600