The BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) recorded a whopping $642.9 million in inflows on Oct. 29, according to Farside data.

It is the largest inflow since March 12 bringing the total net inflow for all funds to $870.1 million, the highest since June 4.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas observed that the fund also saw its largest trading volume day for six months, with $3.3 billion traded.

Typically, ETF volume spikes occur in downturns, he added before commenting on the surge in spot BTC prices over the past few days, adding, “My guess is this is latter, which means look for (more) big inflows this week.”

$IBIT traded $3.3b today, biggest number in 6mo, which is a bit odd bc btc was up 4% (typically ETF volume spikes in a downturn/crisis). Occasionally tho volume can spike if there a FOMO-ing frenzy (a la $ARKK in 2020). Given the surge in price past few days, my guess is this is… pic.twitter.com/z44ZfggHVm

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 29, 2024

BlackRock Flows Total $25B

BlackRock’s total net inflow since the product launched in January is now just shy of $25 billion.

Fellow analyst and ETF Store President Nate Geraci commented that there are nearly 2,100 ETFs that have launched over the past five years. “With nearly $25 billion in inflows, IBIT is now number four in lifetime inflows out of this group,” he said before exclaiming it “did it in less than 10 months!”

Balchunas added that the BlackRock fund was not alone “as all the main BTC ETFs saw elevated volume the past two days.”

“If this is a FOMO frenzy, we’ll see it show up in the flows over the next few nights,” he said before adding that, if not, it could be due to arbitrage trading.

All of the suits who aped the ETF are now in profit and can start shilling IBIT to their other suit friends who just watched gold go on an insane move into price discovery pic.twitter.com/4Du39UM6Sp

— Will (@WClementeIII) October 30, 2024

The Fidelity Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) saw the second-largest inflow, with $133.9 million on Oct. 29, while the Bitwise BITB fund saw $52.5 million in inflows.

There were smaller inflows for Ark 21Shares and VanEck, while the rest were net zero. Grayscale saw a $17.3 million outflow for its GBTC fund but a $29.2 million inflow for its lower-fee mini Bitcoin Trust (BTC).

The big institutional inflow comes as bitcoin prices came just shy of their all-time high. The asset reached $73,562 during late trading on Tuesday, Oct. 29, according to CoinGecko.

It has since retreated to $72,500 at the time of writing but remains up 3.5% on the day and just 1.7% away from its March peak. Breaking into new price discovery now seems inevitable.

#BTC

That’s a phenomenal Bull Flag breakout$BTC #Crypto #Bitcoin https://t.co/alT0ni11df pic.twitter.com/XQZnrhDiZT

— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) October 29, 2024

Meanwhile, many of the high cap altcoins, including Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and XRP (XRP) were being left behind with very little movement over the past 24 hours.