IBIT hits 5th in ETF volume with GLD at 9th as BTC price rises, reflecting VOO, AI and debasement trades in 2026 rankings.

GLD short interest jumps 80% and GDX rises 50% per S3 data, pushing both toward Bitcoin doghouse after rough year.

According to @KobeissiLetter, trading volume in iShares Silver Trust SLV surpassed a record 40 billion on Friday, while SPDR Gold Shares GLD daily volume also hit an all-time high of about 40 billion (source: @KobeissiLetter). The source describes silver and gold ETF volumes as parabolic this week in the largest silver- and gold-backed funds (source: @KobeissiLetter).

According to @EricBalchunas, GLD and SLV each traded about 40 billion in turnover in a single session, setting all-time records and surpassing any individual stock, with TSLA the closest at an estimated 35 billion, source: @EricBalchunas. He added the pair are on pace to close the week with roughly 280 billion in cumulative volume, underscoring exceptional liquidity in precious metals ETFs, source: @EricBalchunas.

According to Eric Balchunas, silver extended its rally with trading volume surging, as SLV recorded two days of volume equal to its entire first half of 2025, yet silver ETFs still saw moderate outflows, while GLD attracted inflows during its own advance (source: Eric Balchunas on X). This highlights an ETF flow divergence in silver where price and turnover are rising but fund ownership is not confirming, a key consideration for traders tracking SLV liquidity and ETF flow confirmation signals (source: Eric Balchunas).

According to @KobeissiLetter, retail investors are accelerating allocations to gold and silver funds, highlighted by a $95 million net inflow into the largest gold ETF, GLD, on Tuesday (source: @KobeissiLetter). According to @KobeissiLetter, this is the largest retail inflow into GLD since October 2025, underscoring stronger demand for precious metals exposure from individual investors (source: @KobeissiLetter).

According to @EricBalchunas on X, silver is up about 150% year to date and is now doubling gold’s performance this year (source: @EricBalchunas on X). According to @EricBalchunas on X, SLV posted $21 billion in weekly trading volume, the highest in 15 years despite the Christmas week (source: @EricBalchunas on X). According to @EricBalchunas on X, SLV’s year-to-date net inflows are $3.4 billion, while GLD’s are $23 billion and spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT’s are $25 billion (source: @EricBalchunas on X). According to @EricBalchunas on X, the $21 billion weekly volume signals elevated liquidity for SLV execution and risk management based on the reported figure (source: @EricBalchunas on X). According to @EricBalchunas on X, the larger YTD flows into GLD and IBIT versus SLV indicate stronger investor allocation to gold and BTC exposure than to silver ETFs based on the cited flow data (source: @EricBalchunas on X).

According to @EricBalchunas, IBIT is the only ETF on the 2025 Flow Leaderboard with a negative year-to-date return (YTD), highlighting it as an outlier on performance versus peers (source: @EricBalchunas on X, Dec 19, 2025). He reports that despite the negative return, IBIT still placed 6th by net inflows for the year, underscoring strong investor demand (source: @EricBalchunas on X, Dec 19, 2025). He adds that IBIT attracted more money than GLD in 2025 flows, indicating robust allocation to spot Bitcoin exposure via ETFs (source: @EricBalchunas on X, Dec 19, 2025). Balchunas characterizes this pattern as HODL-style behavior from traditional investors, which he presents as the key takeaway for BTC-linked ETF flows (source: @EricBalchunas on X, Dec 19, 2025).

According to @charliebilello, gold is up about 60% year to date in 2025, making it the best-performing major asset. Source: Charlie Bilello on X (Dec 6, 2025); bilello.blog/newsletter. According to @charliebilello, Bitcoin (BTC) is down about 4% year to date in 2025, ranking as the worst-performing major asset. Source: Charlie Bilello on X (Dec 6, 2025); bilello.blog/newsletter. According to @charliebilello, this gold-leads and Bitcoin-lags setup has not occurred in any prior calendar year and is the inverse of 2013. Source: Charlie Bilello on X (Dec 6, 2025); bilello.blog/newsletter. For traders, the GLD versus BTC year-to-date performance spread is roughly 64 percentage points, underscoring extreme cross-asset dispersion to monitor in momentum and rotation screens. Source: Calculated from @charliebilello’s reported figures; Charlie Bilello on X (Dec 6, 2025).

According to @charliebilello, gold has outperformed Bitcoin by 19% since the inception of the first Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, with GLD and IBIT referenced as the comparative proxies, source: X post by @charliebilello on Nov 22, 2025; bilello.blog/newsletter. For traders, this marks a 19% relative-strength spread over that window, implying a positive GLD/BTC spread and a negative BTC/Gold spread on a simple price comparison, source: @charliebilello on X. Instrument context: GLD is SPDR Gold Shares and IBIT is the iShares Bitcoin Trust, sources: ssga.com; ishares.com.

According to @charliebilello, gold is up 55% year-to-date in 2025 while Bitcoin is down 9%, making gold the best-performing major asset and Bitcoin the worst, highlighting a rare divergence (source: @charliebilello on X, Nov 22, 2025; bilello.blog/newsletter). According to @charliebilello, this setup is the inverse of 2013, indicating an unusual rotation that traders can benchmark via GLD versus BTC performance for relative-strength tracking (source: @charliebilello on X, Nov 22, 2025; bilello.blog/newsletter). According to @charliebilello, the reported spread supports trading approaches that favor GLD over BTC or monitoring the GLD/BTC spread for momentum or mean-reversion signals, with risk framed by the stated YTD gap (source: @charliebilello on X, Nov 22, 2025; bilello.blog/newsletter).

According to @charliebilello, gold is up 54% year-to-date in 2025, making it the best-performing major asset, while Bitcoin (BTC) is down 1% and ranks as the worst performer among majors (X post dated Nov 18, 2025; YouTube video referenced). According to @charliebilello, this setup is unprecedented in any calendar year and is the inverse of 2013 (X post dated Nov 18, 2025). According to @charliebilello, the performance gap between GLD and BTC is roughly 55 percentage points year-to-date, highlighting a decisive cross-asset divergence that traders can anchor to for relative performance tracking (X post dated Nov 18, 2025).

According to Charlie Bilello, gold is up 55% year-to-date in 2025, making it the best-performing major asset as of Nov 15, 2025. Source: Charlie Bilello (X post, Nov 15, 2025; bilello.blog/newsletter). According to Charlie Bilello, Bitcoin (BTC) is up 1% year-to-date in 2025, ranking as the worst-performing major asset over the same period. Source: Charlie Bilello (X post, Nov 15, 2025; bilello.blog/newsletter). According to Charlie Bilello, the 54 percentage-point performance spread between gold and Bitcoin is the inverse of 2013 and has not occurred in any prior calendar year in his dataset. Source: Charlie Bilello (X post, Nov 15, 2025; bilello.blog/newsletter).

According to @EricBalchunas, markets saw a broad cross-asset selloff with SPY -1.5%, IWM -2.9%, IBIT -3.2%, GLD -0.75%, TLT -0.74%, and SHY -0.06%, indicating weakness even in short-term Treasuries; source: @EricBalchunas on X, Nov 13, 2025. IBIT’s larger decline than SPY shows Bitcoin exposure lagged large-cap equities on the day, while small caps underperformed via IWM; source: @EricBalchunas on X, Nov 13, 2025. For crypto traders, the session demonstrated risk-off pressure hitting Bitcoin-linked instruments such as IBIT alongside equities and bonds; source: @EricBalchunas on X, Nov 13, 2025.