BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has been a massive success, having now taken in more than $15 billion worth of investment since its launch on January 11.
The spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which received the green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission along with 10 other Bitcoin funds, has received more inflows than other similar products on the market, data from Farside Investors shows.
And IBIT now has $18.7 billion in assets under management—having fast caught up with Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which has $22.2 billion.
BlackRock is the world's biggest asset manager and sent shockwaves through the digital asset industry when it filed an S-1 form with the SEC to launch the crypto fund.
Its CEO Larry Fink then said on television that Bitcoin was "digitizing gold" and an "international asset." BlackRock's prominence and Fink's support could be part of the reason that the fund has done so well. It also has lower fees than some other Bitcoin ETFs.
A Bitcoin ETF gives traditional investors the ability to buy shares via brokerage accounts that track the underlying price of the biggest cryptocurrency by market cap. Investors who buy IBIT do not need to store and hold Bitcoin themselves—a sometimes complicated and daunting process.
The price of Bitcoin now stands at $67,787 per coin, according to CoinGecko. That's a drop of close to 4% in 24 hours. The coin last month hit a new all-time high of nearly $74,000.
As a firm, BlackRock has continued to do well. On Friday, the company announced that its total assets under management has surged to $10.5 trillion—up 15% from a year ago.
Edited by Andrew Hayward