BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF Smashes Records: $70B in Just 341 Days!

Fastest ETF Ever: iShares Bitcoin Trust Leaves Gold in the Dust

Holy smokes! BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF just rocketed past $70 billion in assets under management faster than a Bitcoin transaction on a lightning network! That's right, the iShares Bitcoin Trust hit the $70 billion mark in a mind-blowing 341 days, leaving the old record of 1,691 days set by the SPDR Gold Shares ETF eating its dust. Five times faster, baby!

Eric Balchunas, the Bloomberg ETF guru, dropped this bombshell on X on June 9, and the crypto world is still reeling. "$IBIT just blew through $70b and is now the fastest ETF to ever hit that mark in only 341 days, which is 5x faster than the old record held by GLD of 1,691 days," he tweeted, along with a killer chart from Jacki Wang.

BlackRock: The New Bitcoin King?

Hold onto your hats, folks, because IBIT is now managing a staggering $71.9 billion in assets and holding a whopping 661,457 BTC. That makes BlackRock the undisputed heavyweight champion of institutional Bitcoin holders, leaving Binance and Strategy in the rearview mirror. The ETF is currently trading at a cool $61.77 per share and has already raked in $201 million in inflows this June, hot on the heels of a record-smashing $5.9 billion in May.

This bad boy started trading on the Nasdaq on January 11, 2024, just a day after U.S. regulators gave the green light to spot Bitcoin ETFs. IBIT's first day was a blockbuster, with over $1 billion in volume, proving that both institutional and retail investors are all in on this crypto revolution.

Bitcoin: The New Inflation Hedge?

In a juicy interview with Yahoo Finance on June 9, Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock's head of digital assets, spilled the beans on IBIT's success. He said it's all about Bitcoin's growing rep as an inflation hedge and a slick alternative store of value. Mitchnick also bragged that IBIT has outshined even the world's biggest gold fund in inflows this year, with a cool $6.96 billion net since January, ranking sixth among all ETFs. Eat that, gold bugs!

This ETF is growing so fast that some analysts are whispering that BlackRock might just dethrone Bitcoin's mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, who's estimated to be sitting on around 1.1 million BTC. Eric Balchunas thinks this could happen by the end of next summer. Buckle up, Satoshi!

IBIT Goes Global: Russia Jumps on the Bandwagon

Adding fuel to the fire, on June 4, Russia's MOEX exchange launched futures for IBIT, though they're still just for the big shots (accredited investors only). IBIT's rise is perfectly timed with the growing buzz around crypto ETFs and institutional exposure to Bitcoin, cementing its status as the industry leader in the wild world of digital assets.