IBIT generated more than $244 million in annual revenue
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is now the company’s top-earning ETF, raking in over $244 million in yearly revenue. After just under two years on the market, it’s also approaching $100 billion in assets.
ETF analyst Eric Balchunas shared on X on Monday that IBIT is currently generating $25 million more in annual revenue than the iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF (IWF) and the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA).
This news follows BlackRock’s filing for a Bitcoin premium income ETF in the state of Delaware. The aim is to launch a fund that pays investors income using premiums tied to Bitcoin. This product is different from their earlier Bitcoin ETF spot. It’s built to hand out actual income rather than the price of Bitcoin.
IBIT matches BlackRock ETFs ‘ two-decade growth in just 435 days
Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas described the rapid rise of IBIT as “absurd,” noting that it took only 435 days to reach that level. He noted that even long-established funds, such as IVV and EFA, took over 20 years to reach similar milestones.
Balchunas also said that IBIT would likely be the fastest ETF to reach $100 billion in assets under management in the history of ETFs, a record currently held by Vanguard’s VOO, which took 2,011 days to achieve this level.
IBIT’s assets are currently subject to a management fee of 0.25%, with BlackRock earning revenue as both investor interest and the price of Bitcoin climb. The fund continues to dominate the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market, as it did last week, with $3.2 billion in inflows, its second biggest level yet, a week that saw Bitcoin break $125,000.
The surge in demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs comes partly from a more pro-crypto mood in Washington, as the Trump administration pushes to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.”
BlackRock is planning to establish a Delaware trust company
At the end of last month, BlackRock unveiled its plans to create a Delaware trust arm for its Bitcoin Premium Income ETF. This, however, is just part of BlackRock’s efforts to establish a deep presence in the cryptocurrency field. The ETF would yield income by selling option contracts on Bitcoin futures.
The steady payouts, however, would come at the cost of missing potential upside from IBIT, which tracks Bitcoin’s price directly. Balchunas noted that the move suggests BlackRock plans to stick with Bitcoin- and Ether-linked products rather than join the current wave of altcoin ETF proposals for the time being.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has temporarily suspended work on crypto ETF proposals due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.
Harvard Management Company revealed it invested in the iShares Bitcoin ETF
In August, Harvard Management Company announced that it held approximately 1.9 million shares of the iShares Bitcoin ETF as of June 30.
Harvard also reported its endowment totaled $53.2 billion, keeping it ahead of Yale, Stanford, and Princeton as the nation’s wealthiest university fund. As early as 2018, Harvard reportedly began investigating the potential for investing in crypto-related funds. Emory University followed suit in 2024, disclosing a $15 million stake, 2.7 million shares, in the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, marking one of the first such moves by a major U.S. endowment.
In a 2017 video, Professor Robert Kaplan, Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice, expounded on the Harvard endowment, saying, “The endowment and its asset allocation is set up to anticipate you’re gonna have some volatile period.”
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