In a move that reflects the increasing expansion of institutional investments in digital currencies, BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, has launched the first physically-backed bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) in Europe.
The iShares Bitcoin ETP officially started trading today, Tuesday, on the German Xetra and Euronext exchanges in Paris and Amsterdam, where it will be traded under the ticker symbol IB1T on Xetra and Euronext Paris, and under the symbol BTCN on Euronext Amsterdam.
This launch follows the remarkable success of the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) that BlackRock launched in the United States last year, which has surpassed $50 billion in assets, becoming the largest bitcoin ETF globally. Despite the previous reservations of the company's CEO Larry Fink regarding digital currencies, the increasing demand from investors has driven him to adopt a more open view towards bitcoin.
Through its new product, BlackRock provides European institutional investors with the opportunity to gain exposure to bitcoin prices in a regulated and supervised investment environment. While cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been available in Europe for years, they remain smaller in size compared to their American counterparts.
The iShares Bitcoin ETP has a competitive management fee of 0.25%, with a temporary fee waiver until the end of 2025, reducing it to 0.15% during this period. BlackRock also relies on Coinbase as the custodian for the assets, enhancing the security and trust levels in the product.
As the world's largest asset management company, with over $10 trillion in assets under management, BlackRock emphasizes through this move the growing institutional recognition of bitcoin as an emerging asset class, which could support the spread of digital currencies in global financial markets.
