Here's something most people missed: before that heavyweight spot ETF dropped in January 2024, Bitcoin ETFs were already sitting on roughly $25 billion. But here's the catch—most of that wasn't fresh money flooding in. It was legacy holders, especially from GBTC, shuffling their chips into newer ETF wrappers. Just a giant game of musical chairs with existing capital.

Then the game changed. When that dominant product hit the market, we finally saw real appetite. New institutional flows. Actual incremental demand, not just repackaging old positions. That's when the ETF narrative shifted from "conversion play" to "expansion phase." The difference? One's a zero-sum reshuffle. The other's rocket fuel.