BlackRock Inc's Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), IBIT, recently surpassed a significant milestone by crossing USD 1 billion in investor inflows. This achievement marks IBIT as the first among the newly launched group of nine ETFs directly holding Bitcoin to reach this level since their inception last week.

The surge in IBIT's inflows was particularly notable on Wednesday, with investors adding USD 371 million to the fund. BlackRock, along with Fidelity Investments, has been leading the early consolidation in this new asset class. Together, these two firms have attracted 68% of all inflows across the nine new Bitcoin ETFs, which collectively amount to nearly USD 2 billion.

Fidelity's FBTC Bitcoin ETF is also showing strong performance, having received USD 358 million in inflows on a single day, the highest since the fund's launch a week ago. Overall, Fidelity’s fund has garnered around USD 880 million.

A considerable portion of these inflows into both BlackRock's and Fidelity's ETFs appears to be coming from investors moving away from Grayscale Investment’s GBTC fund. This shift follows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of these ETFs, marking a significant development for the largest cryptocurrency and the broader crypto industry.

The SEC's decision to approve 11 applications for U.S.-listed ETFs tracking Bitcoin, from firms including BlackRock, Ark Investments/21Shares, Fidelity, Invesco, and VanEck, has widened access to cryptocurrencies for many new investors. These ETFs offer a more straightforward way to invest in Bitcoin compared to buying the cryptocurrency directly.

One key factor in the popularity of BlackRock's and Fidelity's ETFs is their lower management fees compared to GBTC's 1.5% fee. However, despite offering the lowest management fee in the new Bitcoin ETF group at 0.19%, Franklin Templeton has received less than 2% of the total inflows among the Bitcoin ETFs.