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BlackRock, a $10 trillion asset manager that is also one of the largest Bitcoin holders through its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), is still betting big on BTC, as the firm’s CEO, Larry Fink, recently stated.
While releasing the company’s third-quarter earnings results last week, Fink noted that Bitcoin (BTC) was in its own asset class. He also likened Bitcoin to other financial commodities, adding that it was an alternative to gold.
“We believe Bitcoin is an asset class in itself. It is an alternative to other commodities like gold. And so, I think the application of this form of investment will be expanded to the role of Ethereum as a blockchain,” he stated.
Fink also believes that the digital asset industry could achieve the same growth as the mortgage market. According to him, the mortgage industry started very slow during its early years before becoming an $11 trillion industry. The same growth could also happen in the cryptocurrency industry.
Fink’s recent statements coincided with a bullish sentiment around Bitcoin as the price shot up to a one-month high above $66,000. BTC traded at $65,700 at the time of writing after a 1.8% gain in 24 hours.
Bitcoin ETF Inflows Hit 4-Month High
Bitcoin’s recent price gains coincided with a surge in spot ETF inflows. Data from SoSoValue shows that on 14th October, inflows to spot Bitcoin ETFs reached $555M, the highest level since early June.
Fidelity saw the highest inflows, at $239M. It was followed by the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, which saw $100M in inflows. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust saw $79M inflows, while the Ark & 21Shares ETF recorded $69M. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust also saw positive flows of $37M.
These spot Bitcoin ETFs currently hold $61 billion worth of Bitcoin, nearly 5% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.
Short Liquidations Behind BTC Gains
On-chain analytics platform Santiment has attributed the recent gains in Bitcoin prices to an influx in short liquidations. In its recent report, Santiment noted that earlier this week, total short liquidations for Bitcoin reached $100M.
Data from Coinglass shows that in the last 24 hours, more than $53M worth of Bitcoin positions were liquidated, with over 85% of these being short liquidations.
Additionally, the start of the week saw a slight increase in USDT deposits to exchanges. A spike in stablecoin inflows to exchanges also tends to spur gains by creating additional buying pressure.