BlackRock’s (NYSE: BLK) Global Allocation Fund has reported owning its 821,664 Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) shares worth $47.4 million as of Jan. 31, 2025, as per the Wall Street giant’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
BlackRock’s Global Allocation Fund invests in domestic and global equity, debt, and money market securities.
The fund added 390,894 iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) shares to its portfolio between November 2024 and January 2025. The figure reflects a 91% increase in share ownership from 430,770 IBIT shares as of Oct. 31, 2024.
A spot Bitcoin ETF is an investment fund that tracks the price of Bitcoin. Its shares are traded on traditional stock exchanges. BlackRock has been offering IBIT, its spot Bitcoin ETF, on Nasdaq since January 2024.
Global Allocation Fund is not the only BlackRock fund to own IBIT holdings. As per the asset manager’s SEC filings on Sep. 30, 2024, its Strategic Global Bond Fund disclosed owning 40,682 IBIT shares worth $1.46 million then; its Strategic Income Opportunities Portfolio disclosed owning 2,140,095 IBIT shares worth $77.3 million then.
As per SoSoValue, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETFs held $49.68 billion in assets under management as of March 26. The asset manager is far ahead of other issuers such as Fidelity and Grayscale, both of which held Bitcoin ETFs worth $16.9 billion and $16.7 billion respectively.
Note that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 was an unprecedented step in the direction of traditional finance (TradFi) getting seriously engaged with decentralized finance (DeFi).
The decision not only led to a crypto rally immediately but also led to institutional adoption of crypto assets in the long run.
