BlackRock Overthrows Grayscale to Become Leading Bitcoin ETF Issuer With $19.5B

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, currently holds 288,670 BTC (worth $19.57 billion at the time of writing) in its spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT. This makes the company the largest Bitcoin ETF issuer, surpassing the digital asset management firm Grayscale which once held the leading position.

IBIT Overtakes GBTC

Before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs in early January, Grayscale offered its GBTC product as a Bitcoin Trust. With the successful migration into the ETF market, GBTC automatically ranked as the leading spot Bitcoin ETF holding around 620,000 BTC at the time.

However, BlackRock’s IBIT began seeing the largest inflow from day one. On the other hand, Grayscale’s GBTC recorded steady outflows worth billions of dollars. This continuous outflow was partly attributed to the company’s high management fee of 1.5%.

Earlier this month, GBTC saw its first inflow of over $63 million in BTC amid expectations of a fee reduction. The investment vehicle saw more inflows on several days this month. However, the trend was shortlived as the financial product recorded $105 million in outflow on May 28. Today, Grayscale holds 287,450 BTC valued at $19.48 billion.

Following an inflow of $102.5 million in BTC, BlackRock’s IBIT overthrew GBTC, becoming the leading Bitcoin ETF issuer. A recent report confirmed that BlackRock had injected over $3.5 million worth of IBIT shares into the BlackRock Strategic Income Opportunities fund (BSIIX), enabling users to expand their exposure to different investment products.

Will A Similar Thing Occur With the Spot Ethereum ETF?

Last week, the SEC endorsed the spot Ethereum ETF, enabling issuers like BlackRock and Grayscale to offer the financial product to investors. Still, these ETFs are subjected to an S-1 approval process before being accessible to U.S. investors.

It is worth noting that Grayscale will likely lead the Ethereum ETF market with its Ethereum Trust (ETHE) which was just uplisted to an ETF. The company has been offering its ETHE product to investors since 2017. Presently, it remains uncertain whether BlackRock will overthrow Grayscale to become the largest Ethereum ETF issuer once trading commences.