Authored by Alex O'Donnell via CoinTelegraph.com,
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is preparing to launch a Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) in Europe, according to a Feb. 5 report by Bloomberg.
The move comes after BlackRock’s US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), drew upward of $57 billion in net assets after launching in January 2024. BlackRock’s IBIT fund is America’s most popular spot Bitcoin ETF and chived in just a year what it took GLD (the most popular gold ETF) seven years to achieve...
BlackRock’s European Bitcoin ETP will reportedly be domiciled in Switzerland. The asset manager plans to start marketing the fund as soon as this month, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter.
BlackRock is a top ETF issuer, with $4.4 trillion in assets under management (AUM) across its suite of ETPs. This would be BlackRock’s first Bitcoin ETP outside of North America, Bloomberg said.
BlackRock’s IBIT is the US’s most popular BTC ETF. Source: iShares
Expanding crypto product suite
BlackRock has been doubling down on IBIT’s success with international expansions. In January, BlackRock launched a new Bitcoin ETF on the Cboe Canada. The ETF allowed Canadian investors to access BlackRock’s flagship US spot Bitcoin fund.
Overall, US Bitcoin ETFs saw more than $35 billion in aggregate net inflows in 2024, or roughly $144 million in net inflows each trading day, according to data from Farside Investors.
In November, US BTC ETFs broke $100 billion in net assets for the first time, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence. Crypto analysts at Steno Research expect Bitcoin ETFs to attract another roughly $48 billion worth of net inflows in 2025.
Bitcoin has “become [a] more important component […] of investors’ portfolios structurally” as they increasingly seek to hedge against geopolitical risk and inflation, investment bank JPMorgan said in a December report, citing the “record capital inflow into crypto markets.”
Surging institutional inflows could cause positive demand shocks for Bitcoin, potentially sending BTC’s price soaring in 2025, asset manager Sygnum Bank said in December.