Investment management giant BlackRock continues its road to domination in the cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) segment, as on Wednesday it became the first among issuers of spot Ethereum ETFs to reach $1 billion in cumulative net inflows.
A staggering lead in Ether ETFs
BlackRock's $ETH ETF, $ETHA, hit $1 billion in cumulative net inflows Wednesday, as per data from financial research platform for crypto investors SosoValue. It is the first among the other nine issuers of Ethereum ETFs to reach the said inflows figure, marking another milestone in the investment manager's crypto business.
As of early Thursday, Fidelity's $FETH is the closest to $ETHA, which has had cumulative net inflows of over $375 million, but the figures are still far from what BlackRock's Ether ETF has achieved.
In third place is Bitwise's $ETHW, logging over $310 million in net inflows, and in the fourth spot is Grayscale's #ETH, logging over $232 million in inflows.
Also leading in Bitcoin ETFs
In terms of Bitcoin ETFs, BlackRock's $IBIT is still the largest spot $BTC ETF, and remains the most popular among both institutional and retail investors. As of Wednesday, the ETF logged over $20 billion in cumulative net inflows.
By comparison, Fidelity's $FBTC, in second place, has had nearly $10 billion in cumulative net inflows, and Grayscale's $GBTC has had over $19 billion in cumulative net outflows.
BlackRock to pass Nakamoto's reported holdings?
News of BlackRock's new milestone came just weeks after a crypto user shared a list that showed the combined holdings of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas reposted the list, saying BlackRock alone is "on pace" to dethrone $BTC creator Satoshi Nakamoto in Bitcoin holdings.
While it hasn't been confirmed, Nakamoto is known to hold some 1.1 million Bitcoins. As of earlier this month, BlackRock, through its $IBIT ETF, held over 347,000 $BTC.
Will BlackRock go beyond Ethereum and Bitcoin?
BlackRock's chief investment officer for ETF and index investment Samara Cohen said the company isn't looking into applying for the issuance of other crypto ETFs, at least "not in the near term." At the time, she explained that only $BTC and $ETH have so far met the standards necessary for a crypto ETF's viability.
Competitor VanEck has already filed for a spot Solana ($SOL) ETF, but it remains to be seen whether the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will consider the application.
On the other hand, BlackRock may find a $SOL ETF interesting in the long run, especially after Brazil became the first country to approve a Solana ETF earlier this month, and just this week, it approved its second $SOL ETF.
