BlackRock CONFIRMED That The Floodgates are Opening to Bitcoin | EP 1609

Nico Moran (0:03)

BlackRock just came out and said something very interesting. The ETS have bought 79,000 Bitcoin or thereabouts since the beginning of August, which completely flipped the trend of early 2026, where about 61,000 Bitcoin were sold from January to June.

And by the sounds of what was said in this new BlackRock interview on Bloomberg, this is just the beginning, which echoes a lot of the kind of information and reports we've been hearing lately. It's kind of been one of the main conversations. The institutions are here, but they're not really diving headfirst into Bitcoin yet. So let's listen to this clip. It is a little longer than usual, but I got the bulk of it, and I'll summarize some of the things that he said afterwards. So here is the clip from Bloomberg Crypto.

Rob Jacobs (0:54)

You know, we're really focused on Bitcoin as a portfolio allocation. Investors who are looking at it for diversifying properties, particularly driven by the fact that it's a global decentralized monetary alternative. So this is very much focused on giving pure play exposure to Bitcoin through iBit, which allows it to track very closely on a day-to-day basis, that spot change in Bitcoin prices.

Nico Moran (1:16)

Great, Jake.

Rob Jacobs (1:17)

If I could just a question about where you see Bitcoin in the broader context of things. I mean, you guys have talked about it as a macro asset.

So with what we are seeing in terms of AI as a macro asset or micro theme, where do you see Bitcoin going from here in terms of the way you think, BlackRock thinks about it as a macro asset? Well, we've identified for a while the need to have more monetary alternatives and portfolios. Some of our biggest model portfolios we run have had allocations to gold for the last several years, they've had allocations to Bitcoin. I think as we look at some of the long-term structural themes that are driving the economy, yes, absolutely AI is one of the biggest. But the future of finance and how different types of monetary alternatives are providing value in a world where you have challenges with globalization, challenges with institutional trust, challenges with some fiat currencies, it certainly has a role to play to look at other monetary assets besides just fiat currencies. So absolutely we've seen really strong use cases in portfolios. I think the next big leap has just been the education around Bitcoin. So many financial advisors, so many institutional managers who were really locked out of this asset for a long period of its history now have access and are starting that educational journey to understand it as a potential allocation.

SPEAKER_3 (2:29)

Speaking of the future of finance, crypto executives and investors are gathering in Singapore for Token 2049 It's one of the industry's biggest conferences of the year.

Bitcoin's recovery from 58,000 has revived a lot of talk for another bull market. I think that's one of the big themes taking place right now. I'm curious in terms of what kind of ideas emerge from these kinds of industry gatherings that you guys at BlackRock or traditional finance company kind of take and run with.

Rob Jacobs (2:56)

Well, I think a lot of these conferences kind of set some of the narratives that are driving the overall industry. I think one of the things that we've seen as one of the topics, particularly within the wealth management industry has been how people are moving their spot Bitcoin exposure into Bitcoin ETFs like iBit.

We've recently had the minimums come down for those types of in-kind transfers to about $2 million. And that has created a flood. It's opened the floodgates of investors who have reached out, looking to move money into iBit, not only to outsource some of the custody aspects, so they're not custodying Bitcoin directly, but also to financialize this asset, to be able to generate income on it through custom options strategies, to be able to potentially hedge their positions or borrow against it. We've had many conversations around kind of the movement from Bitcoin into iBit and then using our Spider Rock SMA capabilities to do those custom options overlays. That is a major trend in the wealth segment right now, as people are not just necessarily looking at, should I have more or less Bitcoin? But what's the best way to own Bitcoin in my portfolio?

Nico Moran (3:59)

All right, I'm going to start with the end part there, because it's the freshest in my mind. As we've seen this year, the conversation isn't so much of, hey, you know, do I own Bitcoin or not own Bitcoin? It's really been a conversation of, okay, how much should I add to my portfolio? And in what mechanism, what way should I hold Bitcoin? Obviously, for us here at Simply Bitcoin, and I would argue for the majority of people, we would recommend spot Bitcoin. You want to control the keys, right? But let's be honest, if you're holding, I don't know, hundreds of millions, millions plus dollars in Bitcoin, it does make a little sense to use some of those ETS. I know that's blasphemy. I know you guys are gonna throw tomatoes, and I'm breaking away from the cult dogma. But you see why people want to hold the Bitcoin ETF. Like Ray, I forget what this guy's name is. It's Robbie J. Jacobs.