Taking advantage of the situation: Behind BlackRock's application for a Bitcoin ETF

2023; Year; June; Month; 15; Days, the fund management giant BlackRock; CEO Larry Fink; has passed; 2042; days.

Just yesterday, BlackRock's; iShares; department officially submitted to the United States; SEC; documents for the formation of spot bitcoin; ETF;. According to the filing, the fund’s assets will be named the; iShares; Bitcoin Trust, and the fund’s assets will primarily consist of bitcoins held on behalf of the trust by the custodian, Coinbase.

From disdain, suspicion to contact, and then to entering the market, the attitude of one of the world's largest private equity funds has undergone a huge change in just a few years, but this change did not happen overnight, but was premeditated .

As early as the end of 2020, BlackRock issued a recruitment for the vice president of blockchain. Judging from the job description, the applicant must have a good understanding of the inner workings of the blockchain, and one of the main responsibilities is to evaluate digital assets. value. At the beginning of 2021, Larry Fink said in an interview that Bitcoin can be a store of wealth, but there are still some problems with Bitcoin, "the Bitcoin market is still small", and Bitcoin is untested and has huge volatility .

And in the first half of 21, BlackRock began to test the investment in Bitcoin. People familiar with the matter said BlackRock held $6.5 million in CME Bitcoin futures contracts at the beginning of the year. According to published regulatory documents, the company’s holdings on the reporting date of January; March; 0.03%;, the value-added part only accounts for; 0.0014%;.

Crypto analyst; Tyler Swope; believes that BlackRock's embrace of the cryptocurrency space marks a potentially significant shift in the market, citing comments from BlackRock's Chief Investment Officer; Rick Rieder; who revealed that BlackRock has been Are exploring Bitcoin and believe it has grown enough to be an acceptable part of a portfolio.

Swope; also noted that several BlackRock executives hold key positions in the Biden administration, including director of sustainable investing; Brian Deese; and senior investment advisor; Wally Adeyemo, who have the ability to influence U.S. economic policy. In addition, BlackRock is already deeply involved in the Bitcoin mining industry and has integrated it with the company's agenda. BlackRock can also discuss and promote sustainable bitcoin mining through its partial ownership of Marathon Digital Holdings, the largest bitcoin mining company in the United States.

However, BlackRock at this time remains on the fence about cryptocurrencies. 2021; November; BlackRock; iShares; and global head of index investment, member of BlackRock's global executive committee; Salim Ramji; said in an interview that the company currently has no plans to launch a cryptocurrency; ETF; He said that due to the "opaque" regulatory framework and liquidity-related concerns, BlackRock will delay the launch of cryptocurrencies; ETF; plans, of course; Ramji; Cryptocurrencies, and of course technologies like distributed ledger technology, are disruptive technologies."

It wasn't until April 2022 that BlackRock launched its first blockchain-focused ETF -- "The iShares Blockchain and Tech ETF (IBLC)." According to a filing with the "SEC", the "ETF" aims to track companies involved in "the development, innovation, and utilization of blockchain and encryption technologies."

Rumors about Bitcoin "ETF" had spread as early as "22"; June; when the head of BlackRock's global "ETF" stated that "it is not ruled out that there will be Bitcoin products in the future." BlackRock's global head of ETF and index investing, Salim Ramji, previously said in an interview that while major financial firms such as Fidelity have filed their "ETF" applications, BlackRock still has no intention of launching them. own bitcoin products as the company looks to live up to expectations in terms of quality and regulatory compliance. In August, BlackRock launched a private trust service designed to provide institutional clients in the United States with exposure to spot bitcoin. This trust will become BlackRock's first direct exposure to bitcoin. priced products and will be available exclusively to institutional clients in the United States.

Since then, BlackRock has launched two crypto-related ETFs, namely the iShares Metaverse UCITS ETF, which tracks the STOXX Global Metaverse Index and uses EconSight's proprietary data analytics to identify market leaders, Innovators and professional companies in the field of Metaverse technology, involved in digital markets related to the Metaverse, gaming, healthcare, manufacturing, software and hardware, etc.; and for European clients; iShares Blockchain Technology UCITS ETF.

So far, BlackRock has become more and more closely connected with the encryption world. They not only participated in the financing of "Circle", became one of the largest creditors of Bitcoin miners "Core Scientific", but also cooperated with "Kraken, Coinbase; etc. to launch products, and even held a "very small position" on the bankrupt;FTX;.

And just yesterday, a person familiar with the matter revealed that BlackRock is about to submit a Bitcoin; ETF; application, they will use; Coinbase Custody; for the; BlackRock announced the news of spot bitcoin; ETF; how far can this financial giant in the traditional world stretch its hands? let us wait and see.