Bitcoin (BTC) is down 4% and trading above $65,000 as the selling of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares hit its highest level ever.
According to data compiled by BitMEX research, outflow from GBTC hit $643 million on March 18.
Data from investment firm Farside shows that there’s a net outflow from bitcoin ETFs in general to the tune of $154 million. The iShares bitcoin ETF (IBIT) saw the most inflow of $451.5 million, while the remaining products had an inflow of approximately $36.7 million.
Since the launch of bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) earlier this year, there have been significant outflows from GBTC – which recently converted into an ETF – because of its higher fees. This selling puts pressure on the price of bitcoin.
A recent note from CryptoQuant says that selling pressure is also coming from short-term holders of bitcoin taking profit on recent gains.
Over the last week, bitcoin is down 8.5%, according to CoinDesk Indicies data, but remains up 27% over the past 30 days.