The Wall Street heavyweight launched its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF just 10 months ago, while its iShares Gold Trust is almost 20 years old.
The 11 U.S. spot BTC ETFs have $78.5 billion in total net assets.
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Posted November 8, 2024 at 11:51 am EST.
BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF surpassed the firm’s 19-year-old gold ETF in total assets on Thursday, two days after Americans elected the crypto-friendly Donald Trump to the White House.
Net assets for the financial titan’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) jumped to $33.2 billion as of the end of Thursday, an increase of nearly 10% since the start of the month, according to data from the iShares homepage and a Dune Analytics dashboard created by Hildobby. That exceeded the $33 billion in net assets held by BlackRock’s iShares Gold Trust (IAU).
The shift highlights the rapid growth in investor demand for the first cryptocurrency. IBIT first rolled out in Jan. 2024, while IAU was launched in Jan. 2005, several years before Satoshi Nakamoto published his seminal Bitcoin whitepaper.
Read More: Coinbase’s cbBTC Crosses $1 Billion Market Cap, Deploys on Solana
The price of BTC has hit new all-time highs following Trump’s victory on Tuesday, with the token most recently trading at $76,516, an almost 12% increase since Election Day. Meanwhile, the price of gold reached its own all-time high of $2,789 per ounce on Oct. 31 before settling at $2,686 at press time, according to CNBC.
US spot bitcoin ETFs received almost $1.4 billion in net inflows on Thursday, owing largely to Trump’s election win and the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 basis points, a move that makes riskier assets like cryptocurrencies more attractive. Of the $1.4 billion in inflows, BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for 80% of the figure, or $1.1 billion, according to data from SoSoValue.
“ETF inflows into Bitcoin are literally off the chart since trading launch and more than 10x times bigger than Gold in Year 1,” André Dragosch, European head of research at asset manager Bitwise, wrote on X early Thursday.” Bitcoin plays in a totally different league [in my opinion].”
Gold vs Bitcoin.
ETF inflows into Bitcoin are literally off the chart since trading launch and more than 10 x times bigger than Gold in Year 1.
Bitcoin plays in a totally different league imo. pic.twitter.com/JoyR5779Lq
— André Dragosch, PhD | Bitcoin & Macro ⚡ (@Andre_Dragosch) November 8, 2024
Of the $78.5 billion worth of total net assets held by all 11 US spot bitcoin ETFs, BlackRock’s IBIT accounts for 42% of that figure.
