BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) attracted $93 million in inflows on August 19, 2024. The Bitcoin ETF continues to perform strongly, consolidating its status as the world’s largest Bitcoin ETF.
In May 2024, Blackrock added IBIT to its “Strategic Income and Strategic Global Bond” funds.
The asset manager now holds shares of its Bitcoin ETF across several major funds. By April 2024, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF had emerged as one of the top 10 ETFs of all time, in terms of maintaining a streak of daily investment inflows.
These milestones come after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on January 10 2024, approved 11 proposals to launch spot Bitcoin ETFs from issuers including BlackRock, VanEck and Fidelity. That SEC decision has proven to be a huge success.
Bitcoin ETFs Growing In The US
On March 12 2024, US spot Bitcoin ETFs as a whole recorded a new milestone after attracting more than a billion dollars in net inflows for the very first time.
The total daily inflow for that day stood at $1.045 billion. The contributor in chief to that milestone is no other than BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF which accounted for $849 million of the inflow.
Other contributors include VanEck Bitcoin Trust ETF (HOLD) – $82.9 million; ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARK) – $93 million; and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) – $51.6 million.
Since their launch, US Bitcoin ETFs have exceeded an impressive $200 billion in total cumulative trading volume (as of April 2024), demonstrating the high demand for Bitcoin among investors.
BlackRock’s CEO Initially Did Not Approve Of Cryptos
BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, has not always been a crypto lover. Way back in 2017, Fink called Bitcoin an “index of money laundering.”
Bitcoin just shows you how much demand for money laundering there is in the world. That’s all it is.
Fink was not alone. He was echoing the views of many influential voices in US and global finance then. At that time, many traditional finance operators saw cryptocurrencies as unregulated, speculative, and frequently associated with illicit activities.
But as the enormous potential of blockchain technology and the value proposition of cryptocurrencies began to manifest, so did skeptics like Fink begin to rethink. He now sees Bitcoin as “digital gold.” Last year, at a New York conference, he declared that:
The tokenisation of securities will define the next generation of markets. The distributed ledgers [on blockchain technology] will enable real-time settlement of transactions and change the entire ecosystem.
Founded in 1988, BlackRock Inc. has grown to emerge as the largest asset manager in the world. The organization’s success is a testament to the importance of virtues such as an innovative approach, strategic foresight, and the ability to continuously adapt to a constantly evolving financial landscape.
