1
Spot Bitcoin ETFs have become widely popular in the crypto community since their approval in January, but VanEck's CEO believes the billions in inflows are made by retail investors. Marco Verch/flickr

KEY POINTS

  • VanEck's CEO suggested that spot Bitcoin ETFs have yet to be widely accepted among traditional investors
  • He believes 90% of the massive inflows into BTC ETFs are still from retail investors
  • VanEck also applied for a spot ETH ETF, but it isn't confident the SEC will approve

The CEO of investment management firm VanEck said he believes retailers still account for majority of inflows into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States as BTC ETFs recorded billions in inflows weeks ahead of the halving event.

Jan van Eck told Cointelegraph at Paris Blockchain Week that the massive inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs exceeded his expectations, especially considering how the investments came not from big players in traditional finance but from retail investors.

"I was surprised, but I don't think it's traditional investors yet. I still think 90% of the flows are retail. You've had some Bitcoin whales and some other institutions move some assets in, but they were already exposed to Bitcoin," he pointed out.

He went on to explain that so far, no American banks have officially approved or officially recommended Bitcoin to date, so it would help solidify the notion that most of the inflows still come from retailers.

"There's a lot of maturation to happen. A lot of technology will be developed on-chain, so there's a long way to go," he added, referring to the infancy of the BTC ETF space. He did say that some of the biggest institutional investors may start jumping into the community as early as next month.

Van Eck's comments come about a week before the expected Bitcoin halving on April 20 – a once-in-four-year event wherein BTC mining rewards will be cut in half, resulting in slower circulation of new Bitcoins. Historically, halvings drove Bitcoin prices up due to high demand amid low supply.

Since spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January, there were times when BTC ETF inflows reached multi-billion-dollar figures, as per data collected by CoinShares analyst James Butterfill.

The popularity of Bitcoin ETFs helped propel the price of the world's first decentralized cryptocurrency to a new all-time high in mid-March, when Bitcoin passed $73,000.

VanEck was among the first approved issuers of spot Bitcoin ETFs. It has since applied for a spot Ethereum (ETH) ETF, but just this week, van Eck expressed pessimism over the potential approval of its application anytime soon after the SEC pushed back its deadline for a decision on spot ETH ETFs applications.

"We are the first to file as well for ethereum in the U.S., and we and [Ark Invest CEO] Cathy Wood, are kind of the first in line for May, I guess, to probably be rejected," he said.

Read more