BlackRock Inc.’s iShares Bitcoin Trust crossed the 500,000-bitcoin threshold on Monday, bringing its total assets under management to about $48 billion. The fund achieved the milestone in less than a year since its launch in January.
According to the latest data, the fund currently holds just over 500,000 Bitcoins, which is about 2.38% of the total supply of this digital currency. This achievement reflects the growing demand for investing in Bitcoin through spot exchange-traded funds.
“BlackRock crossing the 500,000 BTC threshold is another major milestone, coming after a very successful launch year,” said Vettel Lund, head of research at K33, in an interview. “BlackRock remains the third-largest spot ETF by inflows in the US to date, ahead of fund giant Invesco QQQ, which is worth $314 billion.”
“Interestingly, institutional investment in the fund continues to grow strongly, reaching 24% of total investments by the end of Q3 2024,” Lund added. “We expect the fund to continue to be used in traditional investment portfolios, with large funds allocating 1% to 3% of their assets to it. This is due to Bitcoin’s ability to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns. Although the milestone of 1 million BTC under management seems imminent, we expect investment to continue into the fund through 2025, especially as the value of Bitcoin increases.”
BlackRock’s IBIT fund has surpassed MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) bitcoin holdings in less than a year, said Peter Chong, head of research at Bristow. Chong explained that the coins are owned by the fund’s shareholders, not BlackRock itself. Chong predicted that the fund’s total holdings could reach 1 million bitcoin in the future, a figure that a US senator has suggested as a US government target.
In a previous statement, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink expressed his surprise at the rapid growth of the IBIT Fund. The price of Bitcoin has risen significantly since the fund’s launch, currently reaching around $95,000.
Lund explained that the steady flow of investments into IBIT and similar funds throughout the year played a major role in driving the price of bitcoin to record levels. He added that these funds made it easier for more investors to invest in bitcoin, which led to increased demand for it.
U.S. spot ETFs saw positive inflows on Monday, attracting $353.6 million. That comes on top of the $6.6 billion inflows in November, bringing total inflows to the funds since their launch to $31.2 billion, according to data from The Block.
Meanwhile, US spot ETFs are getting closer to reaching the amount of bitcoin that Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency’s founder, is estimated to have mined. Researchers estimate that Satoshi has mined around 1.1 million bitcoins based on an analysis of early mining patterns known as the “Patoshi pattern.” However, this number is not entirely accurate, with other researchers estimating between 600,000 and 1.5 million bitcoins, due to uncertainty about some aspects of Satoshi’s activity at the start of the project.
