BlackRock will be dipping its significantly huge toes into the world of cryptoassets, according to public documents and reports from a number of outlets.
The giant money manager led by Larry Fink has filed to provide its clients with exposure to bitcoin futures BTC.1.
through funds, BlackRock Strategic Income Opportunities BSIIX,
and BlackRock Global Allocation Fund Inc. MALOX,
part of the BlackRock Funds V Series, according to paperwork filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The filing states that certain funds can purchase bitcoin-based futures contracts and describes their focus in the emerging industry as “cash-settled bitcoin futures traded on commodity exchanges” registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Interest in bitcoin futures for the money manager who controls about $ 8.7 trillion is because bitcoin prices have seen parabolic movements higher, with a downturn in recent days highlighting inherent volatility in the virtual asset that is slightly more than was created ten years ago.
Despite the recent retracement, bitcoin BTCUSD prices,
on CoinDesk are up 21% so far in January after a blistering run-up in 2020.
Bitcoin futures linked to the blockchain assets are also on the rise, with values up nearly 19% so far this month and up 192% in the past three months, according to FactSet data tracking the most active contract that is traded on the CME Group CME,
BlackRock’s latest moves come after Fink said in December that bitcoin, which has gained traction among institutional investors over the past 12 months, “has captured the attention and imagination of many people.”
Fink said the asset backed by the distributed ledger could eventually evolve “into a global market,” but described its current status as still in its infancy.
Another top BlackRock dog, Rick Rieder, Global Fixed Income’s Chief Investment Officer and head of the global allocation team, described himself last month as a relatively down-to-earth take on the popular virtual asset that some bulls say challenges gold GC00.
as an alternative investment, but said he believes cryptos are “here to stay.”
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that BlackRock would wade into bitcoin as an investment. In 2018, the money manager assembled a team to investigate potential investments in digital currencies and blockchain, the underlying technology that powers cryptocurrencies, the Financial Times reported.
At the time, Fink was less optimistic about bitcoin, saying in a 2018 Bloomberg TV interview that he doubted there was much enthusiasm from customers for bitcoins and its ilk. “I don’t believe any client has sought crypto exposure,” said Fink.
Much has changed and institutional interest in bitcoin has often been credited with helping lead a new run-up in values for the world’s most popular crypto and alternatives to bitcoin, such as ether ETHUSD,
on the ethereum blockchain and Litecoin LTCUSD,
a spin-off of the original bitcoin that was written into code in 2009 by a person or persons known as Satoshi Nakamoto.
Bitcoin futures are even newer than the underlying asset to which investors are exposed.
Cboe Global Markets Inc. CBOE,
launched its bitcoin futures contract, trading with the symbol XBT back on December 17, 2017, during its initial zeal for all things crypto, which ended with teasing bitcoin at a price of nearly $ 20,000 before collapsing to bottomed out at around $ 3,000.
Rival CME kicked off its bitcoin futures contracts about a week after the Cboe, but two years later the Cboe Futures Exchange unceremoniously pulled the plug on its bitcoin futures experiment, noting that there was little interest in its contracts and low volumes.