BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Hits New Milestone After Larry Fink’s Statement

The BlackRock Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) has been single-handedly driving the most inflows in the US BTC ETF market. On Wednesday, IBIT recorded another day of $300 million in inflows thereby taking the total inflows since inception to more than $23.5 billion. But what’s driving these inflows in IBIT to such an extent? Earlier this month, BlackRock chief Larry Fink explained that “liquidity and transparency” are the keep drivers of Bitcoin.

BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Steals the Limelight

On Wednesday, October 23, the net inflows into spot Bitcoin ETF stood at $192 million per the data from Farside Investors. BlackRock’s IBIT alone contributed to more than $300 million in inflows scooping more than 4,500 Bitcoins in a single day. This is ten times the daily Bitcoin production of 450 BTC.

With this, BlackRock’s IBIT is increasing its lead significantly over other players in this domain. Samara Cohen, the head of the ETF division at BlackRock, stated that seeing the pent-up demand for Bitcoin across the global market, the asset manager decided to launch this product earlier this year.

Speaking at the Permissionless Conference in Utah earlier this week, Cohen said that BlackRock saw a better way to access Bitcoin. “It was for the ETF wrapper,” she told CNBC. Within just 10 months of launch, the total market cap of Bitcoin ETFs has crossed $63 billion. Speaking on IBIT’s success, ETF Store President Nate Geraci said:

“Degen retail has now ape’d nearly $2bil into IBIT over past 2 weeks… Nearly 10mos after launch. $23.5bil into a new ETF in 10mos is mind-boggling. Literally any ETF issuer would sign up for this in a heartbeat”.

13F filings, which provide quarterly updates on equity positions held by large investors, reveal that 80% of buyers of the new spot Bitcoin products in the U.S. are direct investors. Cohen told CNBC that 75% of these direct investors had never previously owned an iShare, one of the world’s most prominent ETF providers.

BlackRock also said that they are now working to educate ETF investors about Bitcoin and crypto. “ETFs have been a decentralizing force in TradFi markets that have brought a lot more access and transparency, and importantly, really accelerated in growth during the post-crisis 2008, 2009 period,” said Cohen.

Larry Fink on BTC Adoption

Earlier this month, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink stated that Bitcoin’s adoption is not the function of regulation but rather a function of “liquidity and transparency”. When asked about what impact would the upcoming US elections have on Bitcoin, he said:

“I’m not sure if either president would make a difference. I truly don’t believe it’s a function of regulation. It’s a function of liquidity [and] transparency.”

Crypto donations in this US elections have already topped $190 million. As a result, crypto has taken center-stage these elections by both sides – Donald Trump and Kamala Harris – willing to sway crypto voters.