BlackRock joins ranks of US bitcoin ETF hopefuls

BlackRock filed paperwork with the SEC for a spot bitcoin ETF on Thursday amid turbulent conditions for cryptocurrencies

article-image

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink | Source: World Economic Forum (CC license)

share

The world’s largest asset manager is angling to do something scores of its competitors have tried, and failed, to do: launch a spot bitcoin product in the US.

BlackRock, which managed $9.1 trillion in assets through March, outlined plans for its iShares Bitcoin Trust in a Thursday SEC filing.

Coinbase would serve as custodian of the trust’s bitcoin holdings, pending SEC approval of the product. The SEC sued the crypto exchange last week for allegedly operating as an unregistered exchange — a charge the company has denied.

BlackRock partnered with Coinbase last August, connecting the fund group’s investment platform, Aladdin, with Coinbase Prime — extending crypto trading, custody, prime brokerage and reporting capabilities to BlackRock clients. 

The planned product would use a bitcoin reference rate from CF Benchmarks, a Kraken subsidiary that collects price data from exchanges to consistently track spot pricing.

“An estimated 20% of Americans have now owned bitcoin at some point,” CF Benchmarks CEO Sui Chung said in a statement. “BlackRock’s proposed ETF potentially offers the other 80% an option that is altogether more familiar and accessible.”

Fund issuers have tried for years to launch spot bitcoin ETFs in the US, to no avail.  

Though regulators in other countries have greenlit products that invest in bitcoin (BTC) directly, the SEC has cited concerns around market manipulation among its reasons for blocking them. 

The regulator has permitted ETFs that invest in bitcoin futures contracts to come to market.

Grayscale Investments, which sued the SEC last year after it blocked the company’s efforts to convert its flagship Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to an ETF has noted that those approvals, in part, make the regulator’s rejection of a spot bitcoin ETF “arbitrary and capricious.”

David Hirsch, chief of the crypto asset and cyber unit within the SEC’s division of enforcement, said at a conference on Wednesday that prospective spot bitcoin ETF issuers have not established that there is “an adequate system of surveillance” comparable to trading on a registered exchange.  

Prior to its link-up with Coinbase, BlackRock launched its iShares and Blockchain Tech ETF (IBLC) in April 2022. 

IBLC’s assets under management sit at a scant $7 million after more than a year on the market — despite the fund being up 75% year to date.  

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has also expressed bullishness in crypto’s underlying tech over the past year, saying during a New York Times summit last November that tokenizing securities is “the next generation for markets.”

Updated June 15, 2023 at 5:40 pm ET: Added comment from CF Benchmarks CEO. Added details on the product’s bitcoin reference rate and Coinbase’s SEC lawsuit.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (5).png

Research

Outside of stablecoins, the value of tokenized assets sits below $20B, dominated by the following asset classes: private credit, US Treasuries, commodities, institutional alternative funds, stocks, non-US government debt, and corporate bonds. In the coming months, we see the greatest opportunities in the tokenization of illiquid markets, particularly private equity. However, the successful integration of offchain assets into blockchain ecosystems relies heavily on clear and consistent regulatory frameworks, with purpose-built infrastructure to support it.

article-image

The MicroStrategy founder understood digital scarcity long before Bitcoin, and it’s a story of bubbles, brokers and a “monster bull run.”

article-image

DAS panelists shared strong venture capital takeaways, from how big a raise should be to the role VCs play in the industry

article-image

Titan Exchange CEO Chris Chung says Titan bests Solana’s incumbent DEX aggregator Jupiter on price 80% of the time

article-image

The SEC’s newest statement on PoW mining adds further clarity, though a commissioner points out its limits

article-image

Markets react to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comments at yesterday’s FOMC meeting

article-image

At DAS, the US president noted he’s called upon Congress to enact “simple, common-sense rules” for stablecoins and market structure