Inflation concerns driving funds out of gold and into bitcoin have helped the flagship cryptocurrency hit its new all-time high near $67,000, not demand related to the first bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan strategists have said that by itself the launch of ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which trades under the ticker BITO, is “unlikely to trigger a new phase of significantly more fresh capital entering Bitcoin.”

The ProShares Bitcoin ETF started trading this week and was the first bitcoin futures ETF approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In its debut, it became the second-most heavily traded fund on record, and on the second trading day it brought in a trading volume of $1.2 billion.

The fund now has assets above $1.1 billion, making it the fastest ETF to hit $1 billion on record. Yet, analysts including Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou believe a shift away from gold funds is behind BTC’s record run.

Instead, we believe the perception of Bitcoin as a better inflation hedge than gold is the main reason for the current upswing, triggering a shift away from gold ETFs into Bitcoin funds since September.

Gold has seemingly failed to act as an inflation hedge, as its response to heightened concerns over rising costs was a relatively small dip. Asa result, investors have started moving funds away from gold ETFs and into bitcoin funds.

The strategists wrote that this shift “remains intact supporting a bullish outlook for Bitcoin into year-end.” Bloomberg pointed to the SPDR Gold Shares ETF, which has $56 billion in assets and trades under the GLD ticker, as an example. The ETF is on track to see its fourth straight month of outflows, which so far total $3.6 billion.

Bitcoin investors, JPMorgan’s strategists wrote, have a number of investment choices available even without BITO. They pointed to the Purpose bitcoin ETF (BTCC) as an example, as it has been trading in Canada for some time. It first saw a warm reception but its volume has been waning.

Notably, according to the September edition of CryptoCompare’s Digital Asset Management Review, Ethereum-based products reached their highest market share of assets under management last month. Bitcoin-related products saw their total assets under management fall 7.8% that month. Data for October isn’t yet available.

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