BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company, has established a blockchain-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF) that allows investors to gain exposure to the crypto and blockchain industries without having to purchase digital assets directly.
BlackRock has roughly $10 trillion in assets under management. It added the Blockchain and Tech ETF (IBLC) to its iShares product line on April 27. The $4.7 million exchange-traded fund (ETF) does not own cryptocurrencies or digital assets directly, but rather follows a number of worldwide companies active in the industry.
The ETF is made up of 41 different holdings, with Coinbase, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, accounting for 11.45% of the total. Marathon Digital Holdings (11.19%) and Riot Blockchain Inc. (10.41%) are the next largest Bitcoin miners, with 11.19% and 10.41% of the total holdings, respectively. The ETF now has a good 9.15% US dollar cash position, indicating that it is ready for future acquisitions.
In conjunction with the launch of the new ETF, BlackRock released a paper outlining three major market segments that are now undergoing significant changes. The research reveals how optimistic BlackRock is about the crypto market, arguing that while most of the attention on digital assets is focused on price and volatility, blockchain’s actual potential has yet to be realised.
“We believe the broader opportunity — leveraging blockchain technology for payments, contracts, and consumption broadly — has not yet been priced in.”
After a recent Nasdaq survey found that 72% of the 500 financial advisors polled would prefer to invest client assets in a spot fund over a futures-based one, talk of a spot Bitcoin ETF has resurfaced. The study also discusses the adoption of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), pointing out that 87 countries are currently testing the technology. Institutional investors are becoming interested in crypto ETFs as a method to obtain exposure to the cryptocurrency market.
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