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BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, now handles more Bitcoin than gold for its flagship iShares exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
To put it more precisely: The Wall Street giant’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) has now surpassed its iShares Gold ETF (IAU) in terms of net assets—a remarkable feat given the fact that the former product has only existed since January. The iShares Gold ETF has been offered since 2005; BlackRock acquired the business and brand from Barclays in 2009.
As of market close on Thursday, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF has now accumulated an astonishing $33.17 billion in value, according to data self-reported by the firm. BlackRock’s gold ETF now trails that figure slightly, with $32.96 billion in net assets.
Bitcoin and gold are often seen as comparable stores of value, with BTC long referred to as "digital gold" by many cryptocurrency advocates.
BlackRock’s Bitcoin strength was unquestionably bolstered by Donald Trump’s re-election on Tuesday, a seismic event that has sent markets surging. The day after Trump retook the White House, the firm’s spot Bitcoin ETF saw its highest-ever daily trading volume at $4.1 billion.
That activity outpaced even daily volume on blue chip stocks like Netflix, Visa, and Berkshire Hathaway during the same period, according to Bloomberg Senior Analyst Eric Balchunas—a signal of enthusiasm among investors that Trump will indeed make good on his myriad promises to end the U.S. government’s crypto crackdown and champion the novel industry.
On Thursday, BlackRock saw its largest ever net inflow for the iShares spot Bitcoin ETF with $1.12 billion.
“We're in a goldilocks scenario right now of monetary easing, political certainty, and robust U.S. data,” Pav Hundal, lead market analyst at crypto exchange Swyftx, told Decrypt at the time. “Capital is everywhere, and right now, it’s flooding into the ETFs at an extraordinary velocity.”
Of the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs currently on offer on Wall Street, BlackRock’s is handily the largest. The next closest in size, Grayscale’s, currently holds $16.79 billion worth of Bitcoin—roughly half as much as BlackRock.
Edited by Andrew Hayward