BlackRock's IBIT Opens ETF Door, But Bitcoiners Keep Wandering Into IVV 🌉

BlackRock's spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund has functioned as a gateway for first-time ETF buyers into the broader exchange-traded product market, according to Jay Jacobs, US head of equity ETFs at BlackRock. Approximately three-quarters of investors in the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF had never owned an ETF prior to purchasing the product, Jacobs said on Cointelegraph's Chain Reaction podcast on Thursday. "IBIT was a way for traditional investors to now get into digital assets. But we have seen a lot of people really kind of enter into IBIT, starting with digital asset ETPs," he said.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust, launched in January 2024, holds 765,936 $BTC and manages $48 billion in assets, according to BlackRock. Jacobs said investors who enter through IBIT frequently branch into other BlackRock funds, including the S&P 500 ETF (IVV), an artificial intelligence product (BAI) and a gold fund (IAU). "We absolutely see it as this is a way to engage with a different group of people than maybe we've engaged with in the past," he said.

BlackRock expanded its crypto-linked lineup on Wednesday with the launch of the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA), which generates income by selling covered call options on its Bitcoin holdings. The firm has framed the overlap between crypto, decentralized finance and traditional finance as the "Great Convergence," a term Jacobs reiterated in the interview. "Historically, you've seen a lot of different assets held separately," he said. "DeFi versus TradFi, actively managed funds versus index funds, private assets versus publicly listed assets… and what's happening is people are looking for more solutions to manage their portfolios. I think you're gonna hear a lot less about versus, you know, TradFi versus DeFi, and I think you're gonna see a lot more ampersands, it's TradFi and DeFi."

That crossover has shown up elsewhere in recent weeks. During the high-profile SpaceX IPO earlier this month, crypto traders gained exposure through pre-IPO perpetual futures and tokenized stocks offered on major digital asset exchanges. According to CryptoQuant, pre-IPO perpetual futures trading volume across crypto venues rose from roughly $1 billion in early May to about $22 billion, with Binance establishing itself as the largest venue by volume.

The shift comes as traditional finance advisers increasingly signal interest in stablecoins and tokenization over direct $BTC exposure, a trend highlighted in recent Bitwise research. Jacobs' remarks point to a similar two-way flow, with crypto-native investors using digital asset ETPs as an entry point into BlackRock's stock, gold and AI funds.