BlockFi Launches Its Bitcoin Trust for Global Institutions

The digital financial services company BlockFi launched its bitcoin trust Tuesday with a 1.75 percent management fee and custody from Fidelity Digital Assets.

The company follows Bitwise, Grayscale and Osprey Funds in offering accredited investors passive exposure to bitcoin through a traditional investment vehicle without the challenges of buying and securely storing it themselves. It has almost $30 million in bitcoin holdings as of Monday, according to its website.

Shares in the trust are available to global institutions and other qualified investors and will later open to accredited individual investors in the U.S., according to a Tuesday press release.

BlockFi has been swiftly building out its suite of financial services since its inception. The three-year-old startup began as a provider of U.S. dollar loans backed by cryptocurrency. It has since expanded its product suite for retail customers (which includes a high interest deposit account and bitcoin-back credit card) and launched institutional services. 

In December it landed a partnership with Fidelity Digital Assets, the investment giant’s bitcoin custody and trade execution business, to issue crypto-backed loans to its institutional customers. It generated about $100 million in revenue in 2020, according to research from The Block.

The New Jersey-based BlockFi has raised $158.7 million to date and has said it plans to go public in the second half of 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company.