BlackRock Bitcoin ETF hits record

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust has climbed to a record 806,700 bitcoin, making it the biggest holder in the U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund market. (finance.yahoo.com) The fund’s stash is worth about $63.7 billion at current prices, according to Yahoo Finance’s report Thursday, April 23. BlackRock’s product trades under the ticker IBIT on Nasdaq. (finance.yahoo.com) A spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund is a stock-market wrapper that buys bitcoin directly, so investors can get price exposure without holding coins in a crypto wallet. The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products on January 10, 2024. (sec.gov) IBIT’s structure routes the bitcoin through custodians and market makers instead of retail crypto exchanges. BlackRock’s prospectus says Coinbase Custody Trust Company holds the trust’s bitcoin, while Bank of New York Mellon handles cash and administration. (sec.gov) The new record follows a stretch of steady inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin funds this month. Bitcoin Magazine, citing SoSoValue data, reported $996.4 million of net inflows into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds last week, the strongest weekly total since mid-January. (bitcoinmagazine.com) BlackRock has taken an outsized share of that demand. Market trackers cited by BeInCrypto and Grafa said IBIT now accounts for roughly 49% of U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund assets, ahead of Fidelity’s FBTC and Grayscale’s GBTC. (beincrypto.com, grafa.com) That concentration gives traditional brokerage accounts and registered investment products a larger role in bitcoin trading than they had before January 2024. BlackRock says liquidity in the fund can improve price discovery and lower transaction costs for investors. (blackrock.com) The same setup also concentrates a growing pool of bitcoin inside one regulated vehicle and one main custody chain. BlackRock’s own materials say the trust is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and is not subject to the same rules as mutual funds or standard exchange-traded funds. (blackrock.com) For now, the headline is simple: more bitcoin is moving into exchange-traded funds, and BlackRock’s fund is taking the biggest share of it. At 806,700 bitcoin, IBIT has become one of the clearest gauges of how much Wall Street demand is shaping the crypto market. (finance.yahoo.com, grafa.com)