JPMorgan Ups Spot Bitcoin ETF Exposure By 64% As Investors Pull Over $500M From The Funds

JPMorgan Chase has increased its exposure to spot Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) as investors withdrew more than $500 million from the investment products.

According to the firm’s latest Form 13-F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), JPMorgan added another 2.07 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Trust (IBIT) to end September with 5.28 million shares in total. 

JPMorgan’s stake in IBIT represents a 64% increase from the amount of shares that the firm held in June. The stake was also valued at $333 million at the end of the quarter, but is now worth approximately $312 million.

JPMorgan is not the only large bank with exposure to BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF. Others, including Goldman Sachs and Millenium Management, also have exposure to the product, but far greater than JPMorgan’s exposure to the product.

Bitcoin ETFs Lose Over $500M

JPMorgan’s disclosure was made the same day that investors pulled $558.4 million from US spot Bitcoin ETFs. Just the day before, the funds had seen net daily inflows of $239.9 million, which had brought an end to a six-day net outflows streak, according to data from Farside Investors. 

Fidelity’s FBTC product led the outflows seen in the latest trading session, with $256.7 million leaving the product. The next-biggest outflows were suffered by Ark Invest’s ARKB. 

Meanwhile, BlackRock’s IBIT, which is the largest spot Bitcoin ETF in terms of cumulative inflows, saw $131.4 million leave its reserves yesterday. Bitwise’s BITB and Grayscale’s GBTC also saw outflows on the day of $10.7 million and $15.4 million, respectively. 

Bitcoin Recovers After Sliding Below $100K

The outflows seen with US spot Bitcoin ETFs yesterday had coincided with a BTC price drop to below $100K. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that the leading crypto dropped to as low as $99,257.06 in the last 24 hours. Investors seemed to have bought the dip, as BTC trades at $102,270.89 as of 2:25 a.m. EST. 

While the crypto managed to recover from the brief price drop, it’s still down 7% on the weekly time frame. BTC is also over 16% in the red on the longer-term monthly time frame. 

Daily chart for WBTC/USD (Source: GeckoTerminal)

Looking at the daily chart for BTC, indicators show that momentum still favors sellers. In particular, short-term Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) still flag bearish.

However, there are signs that the bearish momentum is weakening slightly. The RSI, for instance, has leveled off in the high 30s. This could be the precursor to a change in the power dynamic between bears and bulls. 

Meanwhile, the MACD Histogram has started to turn more positive, which could be an early sign that bears are easing their pressure on BTC’s price. 

If traders react to the early signs presented by the MACD and RSI, Bitcoin will still need to overcome the barriers presented by the 9 and 20 EMAs.