BlackRock Inc.’s iShares Bitcoin Trust has emerged as the largest global fund for Bitcoin, accumulating nearly $20 billion in total assets since its launch in the US earlier this year.
As of Tuesday, the exchange-traded fund (ETF) held $19.68 billion in Bitcoin, surpassing the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which held $19.65 billion, according to data from Bloomberg. Fidelity Investments’ Bitcoin fund ranks third with $11.1 billion in assets.
The launch of BlackRock and Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETFs, along with seven others on January 11, marked a significant milestone in the cryptocurrency world. These new funds made Bitcoin more accessible to investors and contributed to a rally in the token, pushing its price to a record high of $73,798 by March.
Since its inception, the iShares Bitcoin Trust has attracted substantial inflows, totaling $16.5 billion. In contrast, the Grayscale fund has seen outflows of $17.7 billion during the same period, potentially driven by higher fees and exits by arbitrage traders.
Neither BlackRock nor Grayscale Investments LLC provided comments outside regular US business hours. According to a March regulatory filing, Grayscale plans to launch a clone of its main fund with lower fees.
SEC’s Shift Towards Ether ETFs
Recently, the SEC surprised many by moving towards approving ETFs for Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value. Under Chair Gary Gensler, the agency remains cautious about the crypto industry due to various scandals.
The Bitcoin ETFs, with combined assets of $58.5 billion, are considered one of the most successful new ETF categories. However, critics argue that the inherent volatility of digital assets makes them unsuitable for widespread adoption, even within ETFs.
Bitcoin’s price has quadrupled since the beginning of last year, bolstered by the introduction of these ETFs, marking a significant recovery from the bear market of 2022. As of 12:48 p.m. Wednesday in Singapore, Bitcoin was trading at approximately $68,797, reflecting a 1% increase.
