BlackRock moved into Bitcoin, Suggesting It Could Replace Gold

BlackRock, the world’s largest investment manager with nearly $8.67 trillion in assets under management, revealed Wednesday for the first time that one of its funds held some Bitcoin futures. A recent filing from the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that the asset management giant has already held $6.5 million in CME Bitcoin futures contracts in January. The $6.5 million contracts held by the asset manager had appreciated $360,457 on reporting day, according to documents reviewed by CoinDesk.

With 70 offices in 30 countries, BlackRock is a well-run, efficient company that manages assets between $ 8.5 – $ 9 trillion with a return on equity of about 15% and a profit margin of about 30%. The company, which has customers from over 100 countries, is also known as one of the world’s largest investment management companies. The firm’s gains from Bitcoin futures only represent 0.00142% of BlackRock’s Global Allocation Fund. Although it may seem very little compared to other corporate firms, it can still be significant in terms of Bitcoin adoption.

In alignment with the news that BlackRock is gearing up to invest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the past years, many expected that this move could happen. Rick Reider, one of the company’s executives, stated in an announcement last month that they were doing Bitcoin research.

Moreover, BlackRock published a job opening in December that they were looking for a “crypto investment manager” for a Blockchain Lead in their investments division in New York. In January, they said that the firm would potentially invest in Bitcoin futures, according to the SEC filings.

Institutional Interest in Bitcoin Continues to Grow

Given the level of institutional participation in the cryptocurrency market since the COVID-19-induced global economic crash in March 2020, BlackRock’s entry into the crypto space should come as no surprise. We already started seeing the bullish market since people are buying Bitcoin in Istanbul and other parts of the world to aboard the hype train.

Rick Rieder, the asset manager’s chief investment officer, mentioned in February that allocating some crypto from cash holdings makes sense. He further stated that he believes that Bitcoin could take the place of gold to a large extent.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price has rallied bullishly these past few days, touching $60,000 and retracing shortly after. For the moment the leading cryptocurrency has managed to keep most of its gains.