$10 Trillion Asset Manager BlackRock Files for Blockchain-Focused ETF

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BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest asset management firm, has filed for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that focuses on blockchain technology, according to a Jan. 21 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The iShares Blockchain and Tech ETF tracks the investment results of an index composed of companies involved in the “development, innovation and utilization of blockchain and crypto technologies” in the U.S. and elsewhere, it said.

The fund tracks the NYSE FactSet Global Blockchain Technologies Index. BlackRock says it plans to invest up to 80% of the ETF assets into stocks included in the index. The remainder would be allocated toward equities-based futures, options and swap contracts. In addition, the fund will not invest in crypto directly or indirectly through crypto asset derivatives. “Similar to shares of an index mutual fund, each share of the Fund represents an ownership interest in an underlying portfolio of securities and other instruments intended to track a market index,” the filing said.

Market crash not affecting BlackRock

The news comes as crypto markets have crashed, with bitcoin tanking 20% to $34,600 since Jan. 20. BlackRock had a total of $10 trillion assets under management at the end of 2021, according to the firm’s latest financial results. Total ETFs managed amounted to $3.3 trillion.

In January last year, the company said that its Strategic Income Opportunities Fund (BASIX) and its Global Allocation Fund (MDLOX) could invest in cash-settled bitcoin futures traded on commodity exchanges registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

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Jeffrey Gogo is a versatile financial journalist based in Harare, Zimbabwe. For more than 17 years, he has written extensively on local and global financial markets; economic and company news. A climate change enthusiast, Gogo’s work has appeared in Zimbabwe’s biggest daily The Herald, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Bitcoin.com and several online publications. Gogo first encountered bitcoin in 2014, and began covering cryptocurrency markets in 2017.

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