Ifeanyi Jesse 
Ark Invest Bitcoin ETF Again Loses Money
According to Farside Investors, the Ark 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), managed by Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest, has experienced two days of outflows for the first time since the beginning of the month. The fund lost $12.9 million on April 16 and another $42.7 million on April 17.
According to data from the Ark Invest website, ARKB holds $2.7 billion in assets, with year-to-date gains of 37.08%. Bitcoin’s price surged from roughly $42,000 at the beginning of the year to around $63,000 today.
Ark Invest Outflows are Accelerating
ARKB’s outflows are accelerating, as are those of the broader Bitcoin ETF market, which has seen only two days of net inflows since the beginning of last week. Yesterday, total net withdrawals reached $165 million, with GBTC accounting for the lion’s share ($133.1 million).
Inflows into BlackRock’s IBIT have also slowed, with only $18.1 million entering the fund yesterday. At the same time, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas predicted that IBIT would exceed GBTC in assets under management by the end of the month.
Earlier this month, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein stated that outflows from GBTC had “started to reach a little bit of equilibrium,” noting that initial withdrawals from the fund were “anticipated” and resulted from selling tied to the bankruptcies of FTX and other crypto businesses.
ARKB’s withdrawals coincide with Ark’s falling market share in the US ETF market.
Over the last year, Ark’s ETFs have witnessed $2.7 billion in outflows, with $1.8 billion leaving in the first three months of 2024. This week, the company introduced its first European ETFs: Ark Innovation UCITS ETF (ARKK), Ark Genomic Revolution UCITS ETF (ARKG), and Ark Artificial Intelligence & Robots UCITS ETF (ARKI).
