Today, in crypto, El Salvador now holds over 6,000 Bitcoin, the total market capitalization of artificial intelligence and big data tokens dropped nearly 30% in December, and United States-listed Bitcoin and Ether ETFs clock a combined total of $38.3 billion in net inflows in 2024.
El Salvador now holds 6,000 Bitcoin, worth $569 million
El Salvador holds over 6,000 Bitcoin (BTC), valued at roughly $569,000,000, as of Dec. 28, 2024. The country joins the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Bhutan as one of the biggest sovereign entities stockpiling BTC.
The South American country typically purchases one Bitcoin per day for its Bitcoin strategic reserve.
El Salvador’s total Bitcoin holdings. Source: El Salvador Bitcoin Office
However, El Salvador recently went on a Bitcoin buying spree and acquired 11 Bitcoin in a single day, valued at approximately $1 million, after signing a $1.4 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
As part of the deal, the IMF asked El Salvador to scale back its Bitcoin policies and the country dropped the requirement for businesses to accept BTC as legal tender.
AI tokens market cap falls 28% from December $70B peak
Artificial intelligence cryptocurrency tokens have shed nearly one-third of their cumulative value in December 2024, as of Dec. 28.
The cumulative market capitalization of AI cryptocurrencies stood at $50.5 billion as of 7:15 am in UTC, down over 28% from their peak of $70.4 billion recorded on Dec. 7, CoinMarketCap data shows.
AI cryptocurrencies market capitalization. 1-month chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Cumulative trading volume around AI tokens also experienced a decline, falling nearly 11% during the past month to the current $4.73 billion, suggesting a lower trader interest in AI cryptocurrencies.
US-listed Bitcoin, Ether ETFs tally $38.3B net inflows in launch year
United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds racked up a staggering $35.65 billion in net inflows in 2024 — far exceeding early industry estimates, while the spot Ether ETFs finished strong, seeing net inflows of $349.3 million in the last four trading days to reach $2.68 billion since launch.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) led the pack with $37.31 billion in net inflows, while the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) rounded out the top three with $11.84 billion and $2.49 billion, followed by Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) $2.19 billion, according to Farside Investors.
These net inflows smashed an earlier $14 billion first-year estimate from Galaxy Digital’s research head Alex Thorn.
However, the spot Bitcoin ETFs didn’t finish too strong toward the year’s end, seeing a combined $1.33 billion in outflows since Dec. 19.
Five of the last six trading days were net outflows, with IBIT seeing its largest outflow of $188.7 million on Dec. 24.
