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BlackRock is set to dip its considerably massive toes into the crypto-asset world, according to public filings and reports from a number of outlets.
The gargantuan money manager led by Larry Fink has applied to offer his clients exposure to Bitcoin BTC.1 futures,
through funds, BlackRock Strategic Income Opportunities BSIIX,
and BlackRock Global Allocation Fund Inc. MALOX,
is part of the BlackRock Funds V series, according to documents submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The filing states that some funds may purchase Bitcoin-based futures contracts and describes its concentration in the nascent industry as “cash-settled Bitcoin futures contracts traded on commodity exchanges” registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Interest in bitcoin futures for the fund manager who manages some $ 8.7 trillion comes as bitcoin prices have seen parabolic moves upward, with a pullback in recent days highlighting the volatility inherent in the virtual asset that emerged a little over ten years ago.
Notwithstanding the recent retracement, the price of bitcoin BTCUSD,
on CoinDesk have climbed 21% so far in January after a meteoric run in 2020.
Bitcoin futures linked to the blockchain asset have also risen, with values up nearly 19% so far this month and 192% more in the past three months, data shows. FactSets that follow the most active contract traded on the CME Group CME,
BlackRock’s latest moves come after Fink said in December that bitcoin, which has grown in popularity with institutional investors over the past 12 months, has “caught the attention and imagination of many.
Fink said the distributed ledger-backed asset could eventually evolve “into a global market,” but described its current status as being in its infancy.
Another BlackRock top dog, Rick Rieder, director of global fixed income investments and head of the global allocation team, described himself last month as maintaining a relatively sober view of the popular virtual asset that , according to some bulls, defies the GC00 gold,
as an alternative investment, but said he believes cryptos are ‘here to stay’.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that BlackRock is entering bitcoin as an investment. In 2018, the fund manager assembled a team to explore potential investments in digital currencies and blockchain, the underlying technology that drives cryptocurrencies, reported the Financial Times.
At the time, Fink was less optimistic about bitcoin, saying in a 2018 Bloomberg TV interview that he doubted customers’ enthusiasm for bitcoin and its ilk. “I don’t believe any customer has sought exposure to crypto,” said Fink.
Much has changed and the institutional interest in bitcoin has often been credited with contributing to a further surge in values for crypto and the world’s most popular alternatives to bitcoin, like the ether ETHUSD,
on the ethereum blockchain and Litecoins LTCUSD,
a spinoff from the original bitcoin that was written into code in 2009 by one or more people known as Satoshi Nakamoto.
Bitcoin futures are even newer than the underlying asset that investors are exposed to.
Cboe Global Markets Inc. CBOE,
launched its bitcoin futures contract, trading under the symbol XBT on December 17, 2017, during the initial all-things crypto fervor that ended with a Bitcoin price close to $ 20,000 before collapsing at a low of around $ 3,000.
Rival CME launched its bitcoin futures about a week after Cboe, but two years later the Cboe Futures Exchange ended its rather informal bitcoin futures experiment, noting lukewarm interest in its contracts. and its low volumes.
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