In brief
- BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETP is now available to UK retail investors on the London Stock Exchange, backed by bitcoin held through Coinbase custody.
- BlackRock’s U.S. Bitcoin ETF became the firm’s most profitable fund in just 21 months, though it fell short of the $100 billion milestone amid last week’s market crash.
- BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has pivoted on crypto, from calling Bitcoin “an index of money laundering” in 2017 to saying crypto serves “the same purpose as gold” as an alternative asset.
BlackRock has launched its first Bitcoin exchange-traded product for UK retail investors, opening institutional-grade crypto access to Britain’s retail market amid volatile trading conditions.
The iShares Bitcoin ETP began trading on the London Stock Exchange on Monday, with securities physically backed by Bitcoin held through Coinbase, as per the Financial Times report.
“As the UK crypto investor base is projected to approach 4 million over the next year, today’s listing of exchange-traded products like iShares Bitcoin ETP unlock a securer gateway to digital assets through traditional investment platforms,” the firm’s EMEA head of global product Jane Sloan said, speaking to the FT.
“Built on institutional-grade infrastructure, [the product] enables UK investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin with the confidence of robust custody and regulatory oversight,” Sloan added.
The product features institutional-grade security protocols, with Coinbase transferring Bitcoin from trading wallets into segregated, offline cold storage by day’s end.
The UK launch follows the runaway success of BlackRock’s U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF, which became the firm’s most profitable fund just 21 months after launch, now managing over $87.5 billion in assets.
“Further steps” ahead
The fund was on track to hit $100 billion in assets under management and become the youngest ETF to cross that milestone, but last week’s market crash derailed the timeline.
“The launch signals the advancing institutional acceptance of Bitcoin as an investable asset class by both major regulators and global asset managers,” Fabian Dori, Chief Investment Officer at Sygnum, told Decrypt.
Dori expects the UK launch to pave the way for broader crypto product offerings, noting that “in the U.S., additional ETPs beyond BTC/ETH and the first diversified crypto baskets are progressing through preparatory stages.”
“At the same time, various traditional managers are expanding their digital-asset footprint, including tokenized securities in BlackRock’s case,” he added.
He said it’s reasonable to expect the Financial Conduct Authority to “proceed deliberately” by monitoring market conduct and retail outcomes before “broadening issuer participation” and considering additional crypto assets “in close alignment with other major financial centres.”
Larry Fink’s flip on Bitcoin
The launch also follows CEO Larry Fink’s pivot on crypto, from describing Bitcoin as an “index of money laundering” in 2017 to placing crypto alongside gold in investors’ portfolios.
“The markets teach you, you always have to relook at your assumptions,” Fink told CBS last week. “There is a role for crypto in the same way there is a role for gold, that is, it’s an alternative.”
However, market conditions remain choppy with digital asset investment products seeing $513 million in outflows last week following a Binance liquidity cascade on October 10 that triggered nearly $20 billion in liquidations, including roughly $16.7 billion in long positions, according to a CoinShares report.
BlackRock’s UK expansion comes amid broader concerns about regulatory fragmentation in the crypto sector.
Last week, the Financial Stability Board warned that crypto firms are exploiting loopholes in fragmented global regulations, threatening financial stability as countries adopt wildly different approaches to policing the digital asset market.
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