BlackRock has scored a major industry coup, as its bitcoin ETF fund has surpassed giants like Coinbase and Binance in holding the world’s most famous token. As the news of this broke, it’s also been reported that the company is buying up a significant stake in Ether and could see its ETF become the most powerful in the industry.
This comes amidst missed potential incoming ETFs for other tokens, as well as an increase in use cases for cryptocurrency across the board. As institutional investment in cryptocurrency only increases, it is clear that several companies are vying for the top spot.
Blackrock Stocks Up
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is officially the biggest institutional bitcoin fund in the world. This is thanks to its impressive war chest of 745,357 BTC tokens. For comparison, Coinbase has 706,150 BTC tokens in its coffers, and Binance has 584,557 BTC.
This shows not only the success of crypto ETFs but also a changing shift in industry dynamics. Exchanges were, for years, perhaps the biggest concentration of tokens on the planet. But thanks to massive institutional support for ETFs, their dominance is being threatened. Looking at the inflow and outflow numbers for ETFs in the last week, it suggested that some investors took advantage of a minor price recovery to accumulate tokens. However, this was being done through the ETFs and not necessarily through exchanges.
With this in mind, the next few years may see ETFs at the forefront of not only custody for institutional Investments but accumulation as well. And while individual investors often turn to exchanges, there are more options across the board.
The Changing Uses Of Crypto
This potential shift is coming at an interesting time, given that the crypto industry is undergoing massive expansion. Specifically, there are more diverse use cases of cryptocurrency. One industry that has significantly embraced the use of digital assets is the gambling sector. In the past, fiat currency was the only option for placing any sort of wages, but now, cryptocurrencies are getting in on the action. As gambling expert Andjelija Blagojevic stated, crypto slots on mobile are much more common, and some players prefer them to fiat currency.
Then there is the growing list of merchants that accept digital assets, showing that they are not just investment vehicles for speculative trading. And as these use cases continue to grow, the institutions that have control of the crypto supply will be even more powerful and clearly, ETFs are gunning for this position.
Not only has BlackRock surpassed Binance and Coinbase in Bitcoin Holdings, but it is also increasing its supply of Ethereum.
BlackRock Eyes Ethereum
Currently, BlackRock’s Ethereum holdings sit at 3.6 million ETH, with 1.2 million of these tokens only added in the last two months. This sort of aggressive token capture has narrowed the gap between it and major exchanges.
Coinbase still holds the title of the second-biggest corporate Ethereum holding entity in the world, but the gap between its war chest and BlackRock’s is only about 200,000 tokens. All things being equal, BlackRock should surpass it in the next few months and further solidify its power within the crypto sector.
Even if this happens, it still has to contend with Binance, which has a whopping 4.7 million Ethereum tokens in its coffers. Still, BlackRock has shown that it has no issues snapping up a large amount of tokens in a short amount of time, so even that could be under contention. One clear thing, however, is that BlackRock is well on its way to becoming a major force in the crypto industry.
