- 5 years ago, Larry Fink said that BlackRock clients were not interested in cryptocurrencies
- Already in June 2023, BlackRock applied to register a spot bitcoin-ETF
In July 2018, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock Inc.. reported that the fund’s clients are not interested in cryptocurrencies. When asked if he thinks it’s necessary to be prepared for the day when they want to invest in cryptocurrencies, Fink said, “At this point, no.”
It’s been almost five years since. And it looks like Larry Fink has dramatically changed his position. On June 15, iShares, a division of the BlackRock fund, applied for registration of a spot bitcoin-ETF. The exchange product was developed in cooperation with Coinbase.
This announcement was unexpected, and there were two reasons. First, the regulatory climate in the United States is not exactly favorable. It is also worth noting that the proposed fund is a Bitcoin ETF, which is a structure that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has previously rejected.
Besides BlackRock, several other companies, namely Bitwise, WisdomTree and Valkyrie, have applied for a bitcoin ETF. The cryptocurrency market reacted to such news with growth. Bitcoin crossed the $30,000 mark for the first time in two months.
The BlackRock filing also has positive implications for Grayscale Investments LLC. Within days of this, a significant $18.8 billion difference in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) asset value per underlying asset dropped, effectively indicating that the possibility of the Grayscale fund converting to an ETF becomes more likely.
Blogberg Intelligence reports that the SEC has a maximum of 240 days to make a decision on the BlackRock application.