YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, expressed his surprise at the success of the firm’s spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) and reaffirmed his strong optimism about Bitcoin’s long-term prospects.
IBIT’s Record Surge: Fink’s Bitcoin Optimism
During a March 27 interview with Fox Business, Larry Fink stated
“IBIT is the fastest growing ETF in the history of ETFs. Nothing has gained assets as fast as IBIT in the history of ETFs,”
IBIT kicked off with a robust start, drawing in $13.5 billion in the first 11 weeks, Farside Investors reports. It hit a daily high of $849 million on March 12 and has been averaging just over $260 million in daily inflows.
“We’re creating now a market that has more liquidity, more transparency and I’m pleasantly surprised. I would never have predicted it before we filed it that we were going to see this type of retail demand,”
When questioned if he expected IBIT to perform well, but not to this extent, Fink responded, “Yes, definitely.”
“I’m very bullish on the long-term viability of Bitcoin,”
According to BitMEX Research, IBIT now holds $17.1 billion in Bitcoin and impressively hit the $10 billion mark in just two months—a milestone that the first gold ETF took two years to achieve.
IBIT Climbs High in ETF Ranks, Challenging Grayscale’s Dominance
IBIT is second only to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which holds $23.6 billion in BTC in terms of Bitcoin assets among all approved ETFs. However, Grayscale’s Bitcoin holdings have been declining, dropping from the 620,000 BTC it had before transitioning to a spot Bitcoin ETF.
Currently, the nine issuers of spot Bitcoin ETFs, not counting Grayscale, collectively hold more than $34.1 billion in Bitcoin. IBIT, along with Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and ARK’s 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), are at the forefront of these inflows.
ETF Shakeout: Survival of the Fittest in the Bitcoin Arena?
Industry experts are speculating that some issuers of spot Bitcoin ETFs might face closure if they fail to turn a profit.
Hector McNeil, co-founder and co-CEO of HANetf, a white-label ETF provider, recently shared insights indicating
“Most of the current ETFs launched will never even break even as costs will only work if they get to billions of assets under management, which they won’t,”
To stay competitive with the major players, several ETF issuers have cut their fees.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Henry Jim notes that these smaller issuers are grappling with a tough challenge as they enter the fray dominated by industry giants.
“If they match fees, they won’t have enough revenue to survive, and if they don’t lower fees, they won’t be able to gather enough critical mass assets to survive.”
On March 27, Hashdex became the latest to join the competitive U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market, with the approval of their offering marking the 11th entrant in this dynamic field.
