BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), the largest Bitcoin exchange-traded fund on the market, has attracted $70 billion in total assets more quickly than any other ETF, adding a new milestone to its long list of accomplishments.
BlackRock’s IBIT, the most popular of 12 available Bitcoin ETFs, set the record on Monday, 341 days after its debut, according to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas. IBIT reached that mark “5x faster than the old record held by GLD of 1,691 days,” Balchunas wrote on X, referring to asset manager State Street’s famous gold ETF.
While other asset managers like Fidelity and VanEck also offer Bitcoin ETFs, BlackRock’s version is the largest by far. After IBIT’s $70 billion in total assets, Fidelity’s FBTC comes in second with $20 billion and Grayscale’s GBTC comes in third with just under $20 billion.
ETFs are a type of investment vehicle, traded on the stock market, that track the price of one or more underlying assets. The fees ETF issuers charge are usually less than mutual funds and offer a simple way to diversify an investment portfolio. Before the introduction of crypto ETFs last year, Invesco’s QQQ trust ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq, and Vanguard’s VOO ETF, which tracks the S&P 500, were among the most popular.
IBIT and 10 other Bitcoin ETFs from various companies launched at the beginning of last year after gaining long-awaited regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The debut of the first Bitcoin ETFs showcased strong investor demand for access to the cryptocurrency’s price movements, with IBIT accumulating over $1 billion in assets under management within its first four days on the market.
By November, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF had surpassed its gold fund in total assets, becoming the largest of the 1,400 funds the asset manager offers globally.
But the record-breaking did not slow down after that. In December, IBIT became the fastest ETF to hit $50 billion in assets under management, five times quicker than BlackRock’s iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF which took nearly four years and invests in companies outside of the U.S. and Canada, according to Balchunas.
“IBIT’s growth is unprecedented,” Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart told the outlet at the time. “It’s the fastest ETF to reach most milestones, faster than any other ETF in any asset class.”
Since their launch last January, increased flows into Bitcoin ETFs have coincided with increases in the currency’s price. For example, as Bitcoin hit an all-time of $111,900 in late May, the total net assets across all 12 Bitcoin ETFs reached an all-time high of over $134 billion.
