BlackRock iShares Bitcoin ETF Surges Past 700K BTC in Record-Breaking Run

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) now holds 700,000 bitcoin (BTC), according to Glassnode data, and has amassed $76 billion in assets under management in just 18 months, outstripping both the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), which tracks the U.S. equity benchmark, and iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM), which tracks the performance of small-cap U.S. stocks.

The figures beats the 600,000 BTC held by Strategy (MSTR), which started purchases in 2020, and compares with Fidelity FBTC’s 203,000 BTC and Grayscale GBTC’s 184,000 BTC.

“New milestone, iShares Bitcoin ETF now holds over 700,000 BTC. 700,000 Did this in 18 months. Ridiculous,” Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, commented in a post on X.

The U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) debuted in January 2024 and have become the most successful ETF introductions of all time. Since inception, they have attracted $50 billion in net inflows.

IBIT is now the third highest revenue-generating ETF for BlackRock across all its ETF products. Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that BlackRock operates a total of 1,197 funds.