Bitcoin is on the move again, and a big reason is the flood of cash pouring into the new U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. These investment vehicles, which allow people to get exposure to Bitcoin without actually holding the crypto themselves, have been seeing serious action lately.

Over the past five trading days alone, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have raked in a whopping approximately $2.8 billion in net inflows. Think of net inflows as the total amount of money coming into these ETFs minus the money going out. When inflows are this high, it signals strong buying interest.

This massive influx of capital has had a noticeable effect on Bitcoin’s price, helping to push it higher from around the $85,000 mark to approximately $94,000.

Leading the charge among these ETFs is BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). BlackRock, a giant in the traditional finance world, saw a massive $1.3 billion chunk of those recent inflows flow directly into IBIT.

Saylor’s Sky-High Prediction

Michael Saylor, the Chairman of MicroStrategy, a company that famously holds a massive amount of Bitcoin, isn’t shy about his bullish views. Speaking at the Bitcoin Standard Corporation’s Investor Day, Saylor made a bold prediction: “IBIT will be the biggest ETF in the world in ten years.”

This is a massive claim, as the world’s largest ETFs currently manage trillions of dollars covering broad market indices like the S&P 500.

Bloomberg’s Senior ETF Analyst, Eric Balchunas, who closely tracks these products, weighed in on Saylor’s forecast. While acknowledging it’s ambitious, he didn’t dismiss the possibility entirely.

“It’s possible,” Balchunas commented, “especially if IBIT starts taking in more cash than VOO,” referring to the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, one of the world’s largest by assets under management.

The ‘Basis Trade’ Angle

While the high inflows are undeniably bullish, analysts are also looking at where some of that money might be coming from.

One factor being watched is the “annualized basis trade” for Bitcoin ETFs. This involves investors buying the spot ETF while simultaneously shorting (betting against) Bitcoin futures contracts on exchanges like the CME. It’s a strategy designed to capture the difference (or basis) between the spot price and the futures price.

This annualized basis trade has recently surged to nearly 10%, a significant jump from 5% earlier in April. This rise, combined with an increase in Bitcoin futures open interest on the CME (up by 2,000 BTC over the past week), suggests that some of the recent ETF inflows might be linked to this specific trading strategy rather than just simple directional bets on Bitcoin’s price going up.

However, even if a portion of the inflows is tied to basis trading, the overall trend of increasing capital allocation towards Bitcoin via ETFs remains a major positive signal for the market.