BlackRock stays bullish
BlackRock maintained its $220 billion model portfolio overweight on U.S. equities despite recent geopolitical volatility — the firm also rolled out a staked Ethereum ETF that pulled in roughly $16m at launch, signaling bigger moves into yield-generating crypto products reported. That combination — sustained equity conviction plus rapid crypto product innovation — highlights where asset managers are betting capital and product effort right now.
BlackRock listed the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) on Nasdaq on March 12, 2026 and instituted a one‑year sponsor‑fee waiver that cuts the fee to 0.12% on the first $2.5 billion of assets. ishares.com The ETF’s prospectus states the Trust will seek to stake about 70–95% of its ether under normal conditions and will pass roughly 82% of staking rewards to investors via monthly distributions. ishares.com Coinbase Prime is named as the prime execution agent and custodian in BlackRock’s filings, and BlackRock’s launch materials and market reports list approved validators including Figment, Galaxy Digital and Attestant. blackrock.com BlackRock’s model‑driven rebalancing generated large ETF flows in the same session—data showed $8.2 billion of outflows from IVV and a $7.7 billion withdrawal from OEF while the actively managed BLCR absorbed $3.3 billion—against a backdrop where Bloomberg Intelligence estimates roughly $3 trillion sits in model portfolios (about 22% of ETF assets). bloomberg.com
