From cointelegraph by Ciaran Lyons

Daily trading volume for BlackRock's Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (IBIT), surged to $3.35 billion during the trading day of Oct. 29, its highest level in over six months.

One ETF analyst said the spike in trading volume was driven by panic buying of Bitcoin BTC$72,309, which is currently trading for $72,390 — only a 2% move away from reaching an all-time high. 

Speculative frenzy among ETF buyers confirmed, suggests analyst

“FOMO confirmed,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in an Oct. 29 X post citing data showing BlackRock daily inflows clocked $599.8 million.

Across the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs trading in the United States, total inflows for the day reached $827 million, according to CoinGlass data.

Balchunas’ claim came just hours after he mulled whether the massive trading volume across spot Bitcoin ETFs might be a surge in speculative buyers or just heightened activity from arbitrage traders.

“If this is a FOMO frenzy, we’ll see it show up in the flows next few nights. If not, it means it’s due to HF [high frequency] arb trading or something like that,” he wrote.

“IBIT not alone — although by far the most — as all the main BTC ETFs saw elevated volume [the] past two days,” Balchunas added.

Echoing a similar sentiment, Galaxy Digital’s head of research Alex Thorn pointed out that across the board, Oct. 29 was the third “highest Bitcoin ETF trade volume day since April 1, 2024.”

Throughout the Oct. 29 trading day, spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US saw a combined trading volume of $4.64 billion.

IBIT had the highest volume, with the second-highest volume from Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which had inflows of $390.3 million for the day.

A higher trading volume indicates strong liquidity and increased trading activity in the ETF but does not reflect new capital flowing into the funds.

BTC is on the brink of tapping its current ATH

As for new capital entering IBIT, the ETF has witnessed an unbroken inflow streak over the last 12 days, with total inflows reaching about $3.20 billion since recording a net-zero flow day on Oct. 10, according to Farside data.

Related: ‘Unusually’ large Bitcoin ETF inflows spark concerns of BTC price decline

It comes as Bitcoin reached above $70,000 on Oct. 29 for the first time since June 6, a crucial price level that traders have been watching closely. 

Since the Bitcoin halving in April, Bitcoin had been consolidating in a range between $54,147 and $69,500.

Crypto analyst Matthew Hyland pointed out that on Oct. 29, Bitcoin completed its “second highest daily candle in history.”

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