BlackRock And Bitcoin

BlackRock manages over $10 trillion in assets. That’s larger than the GDP of every country except the United States and China.

When BlackRock launched a Bitcoin ETF and it became the largest Bitcoin ETF in the world within months, something important happened beyond the obvious.

BlackRock’s core business is trust. It manages pension funds, endowments, and retirement savings for millions of people. Its entire business is built on being trusted with other people’s money. It cannot afford to be seen recommending products it doesn’t believe are genuinely investable.

When BlackRock applies for, launches, and actively markets a Bitcoin product to its clients, it is implicitly saying: this asset meets institutional standards. Financial advisors who were previously reluctant to bring Bitcoin up with clients suddenly had institutional cover. The conversation changed.

It also means sustained demand. BlackRock clients making long-term investment decisions don’t sell during a 30% drawdown the way a retail investor might. The capital is slower, more patient, and less reactive to news cycles.

And it means regulatory legitimacy. BlackRock’s support for the ETF application — and the relationships it brought to the process — contributed to the eventual approval. Its presence in Bitcoin legitimises further engagement from regulators and policymakers who might otherwise have kept their distance.

The concern that longtime Bitcoin holders have is real too: BlackRock custodying tens of billions of Bitcoin through Coinbase is a meaningful concentration of what was designed to be decentralised. The irony is genuine.

Both can be true. The legitimacy signal is real. So is the centralisation risk.

Tomorrow: pension funds and sovereign wealth funds — the wave that hasn’t fully arrived yet.

— The Daily Bit