BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Now Seeing Active Investor Engagement

Key Points:

• Investor demand for Bitcoin is increasingly met through ETFs rather than direct purchases.
• The total market cap of spot Bitcoin ETFs exceeds $63 billion, with net inflows of over $2.1 billion in the past week, half of which is attributed to the BlackRock Bitcoin ETF.

Investor interest in Bitcoin is increasingly moving toward the creation of ETFs instead of direct buying on cryptocurrency exchanges, said Samara Cohen, BlackRock’s chief investment officer for ETFs and index investments.

Read more: Bitcoin ETF Options Trading Now Approved By The SEC 

Growing Popularity of Bitcoin ETFs among Investors

During an interview with CNBC at the Permissionless Conference held in Utah, Cohen said demand is being satisfied mainly through investment products such as the BlackRock Bitcoin ETF. “It was for the ETF wrapper,” she said, highlighting there was a growing appetite for the ETF product as an easier way to invest in Bitcoin.

In all, 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs now have a combined market capitalization of over $63 billion and about $20 billion of capital inflows. Just in the past five days of trading, spot Bitcoin ETFs have witnessed net inflows of more than $2.1 billion, with BlackRock Bitcoin ETF making up close to half of those sales.

Cohen also mentioned that part of BlackRock‘s plan to onboard customers involves educating cryptocurrency investors about the merits of ETPs.

BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Lures New Investors

Per 13F filings, which track the equity positions of large investors, 80% of U.S. buyers of new spot Bitcoin ETFs are direct investors. Of those, 75% have never previously invested in iShares products, a function of the firm’s outsized success in tapping into a new customer base via its Bitcoin ETF offerings. Currently, BlackRock Bitcoin ETF is at over $25 billion in net assets managed, ranking first in the market.

Other financial behemoths have also taken the plunge into the Bitcoin ETF pool. In August, Morgan Stanley became the first large bank to permit its 15,000 financial advisors to sell Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock and Fidelity to high-net-worth clients.

Other firms are either still studying the product before making sales efforts. Bitcoin recently surged over 10% in value and closed in on the $70,000 mark.