Key Takeaways
Why is BlackRock staying out of the altcoin ETF rush?
The firm views a big chunk of the market as less valuable in the long run.
How much crypto does BlackRock hold?
As of writing, the asset manager had $100 billion in BTC and ETH.
BlackRock has been conspicuously absent from the latest wave of altcoin ETF rush, particularly for Ripple [XRP] and Solana [SOL].
Some had speculated that the world’s largest asset manager may jump on the trend at the last minute, but the firm appears to be comfortable with just Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH] ETFs.
In a recent interview, BlackRock’s Head of Digital Assets, Robert Mitchnick, said “most of the altcoins as worthless.” He added,
“One has to be very wary going far down the table with hundreds of thousands of crypto assets today. The vast majority of those are or will be totally worthless.”
He added that Bitcoin still dominates the space due to a clear product-market fit, investor narrative, and a large addressable market as a digital gold. Mitchnick also backed long-term holding of BTC over risky leveraged short-term trading.
BlackRock’s crypto stance explained
For his part, Bloomberg ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas noted that Mitchnick’s stance explained BlackRock’s reluctance to explore more coins.
The firm debuted its iShares Bitcoin Trust Fund (IBIT) in early January 2024, followed by an ETH-based ETF product in the second half of last year.
Due to the market correction, BlackRock currently holds about $84 billion worth of BTC and leads the ETF players, which now collectively control 6.8% of BTC’s total supply.
Additionally, the firm holds $15 billion worth of ETH, translating to over $100 billion worth of overall crypto holdings.
Before launching full-scale operations on crypto ETFs, BlackRock was already active in the industry behind the scenes. It has been the main manager for Circle’s USDC reserve assets.
Tokenization becomes the next frontier
Now, the firm plans to double down on tokenizing all traditional financial products — stocks, bonds, ETFs, and so on.
Its flagship tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, has grown to nearly $3 billion in market cap. In the past year alone, BUIDL attracted over $2.3 billion in inflows, dominating the tokenized treasuries segment.
And the growth isn’t restricted to money market funds and stablecoins; on-chain stocks have also picked up momentum. It remains to be seen how expected SEC rules will impact the tokenized market.