Share this article
BlackRock Sees Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pensions Coming to Bitcoin ETFs
The asset manager has been helping educate pension funds, endowments and sovereign wealth funds about the new spot bitcoin ETF products, BlackRock’s head of digital assets said.
Updated May 2, 2024, 6:03 p.m. Published May 2, 2024, 11:02 a.m.
Make us preferred on Google
- Financial institutions are holding diligence and research conversations, with BlackRock playing an educational role, said Robert Mitchnick, the firm's head of digital assets.
- BlackRock has been talking about bitcoin to these sorts of institutions for several years.
- While becoming the biggest spot bitcoin ETF would be an impressive milestone, BlackRock says it isn’t really focused on the size competition with Grayscale’s GBTC.
Don't be fooled by the first break in inflows into spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) after 71 straight days. The current lull is likely to be followed by a new wave from a different type of investor, said Robert Mitchnick, head of digital assets for BlackRock, the world's largest asset-management company.
The coming months could see financial institutions such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and endowments start to trade in the spot ETFs, Mitchnick said in an interview. The firm is seeing “a re-initiation of the discussion around bitcoin,” which turns on the topic of allocating to bitcoin and how to think about it from a portfolio construction perspective.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
“Many of these interested firms – whether we're talking about pensions, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, insurers, other asset managers, family offices – are having ongoing diligence and research conversations, and we're playing a role from an education perspective,” Mitchnick said. And the interest is not new: BlackRock has been talking about bitcoin to these sorts of institutions for several years, he said.
Pent-up demand for the much-anticipated ETFs has seen more than $76 billion accumulated across these products since their approval in January. So far, some registered investment advisors (RIAs), a decent-sized subset of wealth advisory, are already offering BlackRock’s IBIT ETF, but only on an unsolicited basis. The next step is expected to be the unrestricted offering of bitcoin ETFs to clients of large wealth advisory players like Morgan Stanley.
AUM Horse Race
A lot of social media focus has been on the ETF assets under management (AUM) horse race, and in particular the comparison between IBIT and Grayscale’s GBTC, which can be considered an incumbent because the existing BTC trust uplisted to an ETF. At last count IBIT stood at $17.2 billion and GBTC at about $24.3 billion.
A chunk of the current IBIT assets comes from Grayscale substitutions. Other sources could be outflows from higher priced international products in Canada or Europe, and some of it comes from bitcoin futures ETFs being recycled into spot products.
There are also existing bitcoin holders who would rather own the cryptocurrency in a brokerage account and not have to worry about custody, tax reporting complexities and other challenges associated with holding bitcoin on an exchange, Mitchnick said. And while becoming the biggest spot bitcoin ETF would be an impressive milestone, BlackRock isn’t really focused on that competition, but rather on educating its clients, he said.
Backing Ethereum
BlackRock filed for an ether ETF back in November of last year, followed by CEO Larry Fink talking up the potential of tokenization, the representation of traditional assets on blockchains.
But an ether ETF raises the question of how BlackRock would go about educating clients, given the complexity of the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem. Moreover, why would investors want exposure to another crypto ETF if the Sharpe ratios of their portfolios had already been boosted by a spot bitcoin ETF? The ratio measures the return from an investment adjusted for its risk.
“When we think about this space, we see the potential for digital assets to benefit our clients and capital markets, with a focus in three areas: cryptoassets, stablecoins and tokenization,” Mitchnick said. “And these pillars, they're all interrelated. That's a really important thing for people to understand. And the work that we do across each informs our strategy and our insights for the others.”
UPDATE (May 2, 12:45 UTC): Changes "will probably see" to "could see" in second paragraph.
More For You
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
More For You
Michael Saylor's Strategy catches a break from MSCI, but analysts caution fight isn’t over yet
MSCI won’t drop firms like Strategy from indexes yet, but a broader rule change may still be on the table
What to know:
- Shares of Strategy rose 6% after MSCI decided not to exclude digital asset treasury firms from its indexes.
- The decision alleviates immediate pressure on companies holding large amounts of bitcoin but not directly operating in the blockchain sector.
- Analysts caution that the situation may not be resolved, as future MSCI rule changes could still impact firms like Strategy.
Top Stories
