Is AI Trade Losing Steam? Gold, Bitcoin ETFs Climb Back Into Top 10

BlackRock cut the minimum size for a Bitcoin-to-ETF swap to $1 million in July, from $25 million when the process first became available.

• GLD and IBIT are back in the top 10 most-traded U.S. ETFs, pushing semiconductor funds out of the rankings, Eric Balchunas reported on Tuesday.
• He posted terminal data showing GLD was third with $4.02 billion by value traded, followed by IBIT against SOXL and SMH.
• Separately, BlackRock’s Robbie Mitchnick told Bloomberg that IBIT has helped facilitate more than $5 billion of Bitcoin-to-ETF conversions.

Gold (XAU) and Bitcoin (BTC) funds are back in the top 10 most traded U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETFs), in what Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas called “yet another sign the debasement trade is beginning to replace AI mania.”

“Store of value frenemies” SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) and iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) were back in the top 10 Monday, knocking out some of the semiconductor ETFs that ruled the list all summer, Balchunas said on Tuesday. Those funds were “still punching above weight but not as much,” he added.

According to Bloomberg terminal data, GLD ranked third by value traded at $4.02 billion and IBIT seventh at $2.24 billion. Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (SOXL) was fourth at $3.71 billion, iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) was ninth at $2.06 billion, and VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) was tenth at $2.02 billion. Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) was the top performer at $11.19 billion, followed by SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) at $10.75 billion.