Key Takeaways
- The amount of assets held by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust has grown larger than their iShares Gold Trust, the second largest gold ETF by assets.
- A key difference: The iShares Gold Trust has existed since 2005, while the iShares Bitcoin Trust was launched earlier this year.
- iShares’ bitcoin ETF assets jumped amid a bitcoin rally and investor inflows after an election victory for former President Donald Trump.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ( IBIT ) this week surpassed the firm’s longstanding iShares Gold Trust ( IAU ) in net assets.
As of Thursday, IBIT’s assets reached $33.2 billion, overtaking the $32 billion held in BlackRock’s gold ETF. One key difference: While IBIT was launched earlier this year, IAU has been trading since 2005.
IAU started the year with a roughly $25 billion head start on IBIT; BlackRock’s “digital gold” offering has now caught up in a matter of months. (IBIT still has a long way to go in terms of competing with the largest gold ETF, as SPDR Gold Shares ( GLD ) holds $76 billion worth of gold. )
While gold has performed well this year, with its price increasing around 80%, bitcoin ( BTCUSD ) has fared even better, rising 80% year-to-date performance thus far. The leading cryptocurrency hit another all-time high, rising above $77,000, Friday.
The recent rise in IBIT’s value has come after a rally in bitcoin partly attributed to Donald Trump’s election win . On Thursday, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw inflows nearing $1.3 billion, with BlackRock’s IBIT accounting for $1.1 billion of that total, according to Farside Investors. That was an all-time high for IBIT—or any other bitcoin ETF.