BLK - BlackRock Sees 'Little Interest' In More Crypto ETFs
2024-07-26 10:26:46 ET
At the Bitcoin 2024 conference taking place in Nashville, Tennessee, executives from asset manager %BlackRock (NYSE: ) said they see “little interest” among clients in %Cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) beyond %Bitcoin (CRYPTO: ) and %Ethereum (CRYPTO: ).
Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, said that he doesn’t expect additional crypto ETFs related to %Solana (CRYPTO: ) or %Cadano (CRYPTO: ) to be approved anytime soon.
“I would say that our client base today, their interest overwhelmingly is in Bitcoin first, and then somewhat in ETH… and there’s very little interest today beyond those two,” said Mitchnick during a panel discussion at the conference.
BlackRock’s first crypto exchange-traded fund, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), has proven to be extremely popular with investors since it launched this January.
In recent days, BlackRock also launched its new iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) following regulatory approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF has about $22 billion U.S. of assets under management while its Ethereum ETF has attracted $270 million U.S. of capital after only a few days of trading.
BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager with more than $10 trillion U.S. of assets under management worldwide.
However, not all asset managers in attendance at the Bitcoin conference agreed with BlackRock’s view on future crypto ETFs.
Franklin Templeton, which also offers Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, is optimistic about more cryptocurrency ETFs coming to market, including one linked to Solana.
Blackrock’s Mitchnick said that clients see Bitcoin and Ethereum as complementing one another rather than as competitors.
He added that he expects investors to allocate about 20% of their crypto holdings to Ethereum and the remaining 80% to Bitcoin moving forward.
BlackRock’s stock has risen 6% so far this year and trades at $843.99 U.S. per share.