Major financial powerhouses that collectively manage an astounding $27 trillion in assets are making inroads into the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency after a race to list the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States kicked off.
As noted by CoinShares Chief Strategy Officer, Meltem Demirors, at least eight financial behemoths, which include BlackRock, Fidelity, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, Invesco, and Bank of America are “actively working to provide access to Bitcoin and more.”
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, took a pioneering leap on June 16 with a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund application, seemingly igniting a domino effect as peers rushed to file similar applications.
The market responded with a flurry of activity that saw the price of the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin hit a new high for the year above the $31,000 mark, before enduring a slight correction to now trade at $30,600.
Demirors, while noting that there are more offering available out there, offered a tempered perspective saying it’s “always helpful to zoom out and look at the bigger picture,” noting that the institutional march into Bitcoin is still nascent, likening it to a trickle rather than a wave as we’re seeing “the bridges being built in real time.”
The $27 trillion figure, it’s important to point out, represents a grand total of assets under management across the aforementioned institutions, and only a minuscule fragment of this gargantuan sum is anticipated to be channeled into cryptocurrency investments, as Cointelegraph noted.
Notably, data has shown that institutional interest in crypto has been growing. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), a Bitcoin futures fund, has seen a dramatic uptick in capital inflows on June 26, seeing the most significant weekly inflow in a year at $65.3 million, pushing its assets above $1 billion.
With a fee of 0.95%, the fund has gained 59.6% since 2023 began, according to ProShares. Interest in Bitcoin derivatives surged after BlackRock filed for its spot Bitcoin ETF on June 15, with data showing Bitcoin futures open interest surged around 30% since then.
Featured image via Pixabay.
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