BlackRock Exec shows IBIT flow driven by strong investor interest

Rachel Aguirre, head of product at BlackRock US iShares, said in an interview with Bloomberg that the firm's Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) has seen increased flows, mostly from retail investors and newcomers to the cryptocurrency space.

This revelation follows the impressive performance of IBIT, which maintained its lead among US spot Bitcoin ETFs by total volume.

Blackrock IBIT records impressive earnings

On the third day of trading, data from Nasdaq indicated that the total trading volume of US spot Bitcoin ETFs approached $10 billion, with IBIT contributing approximately $1.9 billion to this figure.

Rachel Aguirre, head of US iShares product at BlackRock, said inflows into IBIT are coming from retail and new investors pic.twitter.com/TRKIKsz29s

— Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) January 17, 2024

In particular, Standard Chartered analysts predicted that bitcoin ETFs would generate more than $1 billion in revenue in the first three months. In the highly competitive landscape of newly launched spot Bitcoin ETFs, total trading volume on the third day was around $500 million, in line with industry expectations.

BlackRock's IBIT has continued to perform strongly since its highly anticipated debut on the NASDAQ, quickly securing its position as the third-largest holder of Bitcoin among public companies. IBIT's success has sparked discussions among investors closely following BlackRock's assertive activity in the cryptocurrency market.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented on BlackRock's growing influence, saying it's not a matter of “if” but “when” the tech giant's micro-strategy in Bitcoin holdings will outpace them.

Let me put into context how insane that amount of $10B in the first 3 days is. In the year There were 500 ETFs launched in 2023. Today, they made $450 million in voice-overs. The best is 45 million. And many had months to go. $IBIT alone is seeing more activity than the entire '23 Freshman…

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) January 16, 2024

He also pointed out that IBIT outperformed the 500 ETFs newly introduced for 2023 as of January 16.

IBIT moves to GBTC as a strong challenger.

IBIT's impressive revenue streams position it as a strong competitor to Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) due to its established presence and large number of holders. IBIT recorded a massive inflow of nearly $497.7 million in its first two days, allowing BlackRock to earn 11,500 Bitcoins for its funding.

Following closely behind IBIT, Fidelity Investments' FBTC reported total inflows of $422.3 million over the same period, with a third day trading volume of $170.1 million.

Last: The third day's volume so far is a healthy half a billion for a newborn, a similar pattern failure to $BITO (which was again the most successful organic launch in ETF history). It will be high. pic.twitter.com/hoatfSmNpN

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) January 16, 2024

Together, IBIT and FBTC contributed more than $3.1 billion to the total trading volume, most of which went into revenue. In contrast, the more established ETFs, GBTC and ProShares' BITO, dominated total volume with $4.65 billion and $3.26 billion, respectively.

Despite their high trading volume, these two ETFs experienced mainly outflows as investors sold their holdings after recovering from last year's losses.