With the approval of a series of spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at the start of 2024, the biggest manager by assets under management (AUM), BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), joined the cryptocurrency fray and became one of the largest digital assets owners in the world.
The finance giant’s cryptocurrency portfolio, by press time on January 23, 2025, grew to a staggering total value of $61.46 billion, with its biggest holdings made up of BTC, Ethereum (ETH), and the stablecoin USDC.
At press time, BlackRock owns about 569,000 Bitcoins, worth a total of $57,75 billion, per the data retrieved by Finbold from Arkham Intelligence.
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BlackRock’s Bitcoin crypto balance
Since the inception of its ETF, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), the asset-managing giant has been steadily buying up the world’s premier cryptocurrency, building its balance from 220 on January 6, 2024, to 552,000 on the last day of the same year.
Since the start of 2025, BlackRock purchased an additional 17,000 BTC, worth $1.7 billion, given the coin’s press time price of $102,484.
Despite some balance volatility – BlackRock held 559,000 on January 9 and 554,000 just days later on January 16 – the overall trajectory of cryptocurrency under management has been one of mostly steady growth.
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF price performance
The same cannot be said about the IBIT ETF, which has been rising in waves despite being 137.81% in the green in the all-time chart. For example, the fund surged with some speed between January and March 2024 but then effectively traded sideways until Donald Trump’s re-election.
This year has been no different for IBIT as the ETF was on the rise until January 6 and was collapsing by January 13, only to regain it once more. Subsequently, it reentered a correction on the 22nd day of the month. At press time, the fund is changing hands at $59.38.
Still, it would appear that BlackRock is expecting an unprecedented surge later in 2025 as its CEO, Larry Fink, recently opined BTC might hit $700,000.
BTC price chart
The performance of the derivative asset isn’t surprising, given it has, so far, mimicked Bitcoin’s trajectory relatively faithfully. BTC itself experienced a staggering rise by March 2024 before undergoing months of sideways trading and decline.
Furthermore, like IBIT, Bitcoin was awakened from its slumber by the election results and found its new highs almost $10,000 above the important psychological $100,000 level.
Again, the situation in 2025 is similar as BTC found new and higher highs as recently as January 20 but then corrected to its press time price of $102,484.
