About one-fifth of BlackRock’s ETF net inflows during the first quarter went into the firm’s spot bitcoin ETF.
The world’s largest asset manager saw net inflows of $67 billion across its 400-plus fund ETF range in the year’s first three months, the company reported during an earnings call Friday.
Its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) — launched on Jan. 11 alongside nine similar spot bitcoin funds — notched roughly $13.9 billion, or 21%, of those flows, ETF.com data shows.
Alongside the “surging demand” for the bitcoin fund, core equity and fixed income ETFs notched net inflows of $37 billion and $18 billion, respectively, according to BlackRock Chief Financial Officer Martin Small.
IBIT, managing nearly $19 billion in assets, is “the fastest-growing ETF in history,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink during the earnings call.
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The offering, along with a competing bitcoin fund by Fidelity, has tallied net inflows on every trading day since it launched three months ago — an unprecedented streak for new ETFs.
The BlackRock bitcoin fund’s momentum helped BlackRock achieve a record assets under management of $10.5 trillion during the first quarter.
“This is just the latest example of BlackRock innovating to provide better access and transparency to a wider range of investment exposures,” Small said of IBIT.
BlackRock also introduced its first tokenized fund — the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund — last quarter. That offering gives qualified investors exposure to US dollar yields via Securitize Markets, a company focused on tokenizing real-world assets.
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Fink has previously called tokenized assets “the next generation for markets” — noting they offer a chance for BlackRock and others to drive efficiencies in capital markets, shorten value chains and lower costs for investors.
“This builds on our existing digital assets strategy,” Fink said of the tokenized fund launch. “We’ll continue to innovate new products and wrappers, all with the aim of providing greater access and customization to each and every one of our clients.”
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Source: https://blockworks.co/news/blackrock-q1-earnings-bitcoin-fund-inflows