Coin Bureau|08. Juli
Blackrock is Taking Over Crypto
BlackRock's Takeover of Crypto
The world's largest asset manager, BlackRock (with over $14 trillion in AUM), is driving institutional crypto adoption – with far-reaching consequences:
- ETF Empire: The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is the largest spot Bitcoin ETF globally (approx. $47.4B, over 765,000 BTC). It dominates 61% of the entire Bitcoin ETF sector and 74% of daily trading volume. 75% of IBIT investors had never owned a BlackRock ETF before.
- Yield Products:
- ETHB (staked Ethereum ETF) – takes an 18% cut of staking rewards.
- BIT A (covered call ETF) – writes call options on 25-35% of its IBIT holdings, targeting 15-25% annual yield.
- Tokenization: The tokenized Treasury fund BUIDL (over $2.5B) runs on nine blockchains and is used as collateral in DeFi (e.g., on Aave, Onondo Finance, as margin on Binance, Crypto.com).
- Endgame: Larry Fink wants to tokenize all stocks, bonds, and funds – BlackRock's iShares franchise ($4 trillion) is moving on-chain. The DTCC is piloting tokenization of Russell 1000 equities and US Treasuries with 50+ firms.
- Wall Street builds the rails: The blockchain is not the master record – the DTCC keeps the “golden record” on a centralized ledger; tokens are mere mirrors. Critics call it a “faster shared database with override keys.”
- Permissioned vs. Permissionless: BUIDL requires KYC, can freeze assets, and blacklist wallets. Access is limited to qualified purchasers – locking out small, decentralized innovators.
- Custody Concentration: Vitalik Buterin warns about a handful of giants controlling a large share of ETH held in US ETFs.
BlackRock is building a bridge between the old and new system – offering convenience (fast settlement, 24/7 markets, fractionalization) in exchange for control (freezing, blacklisting, override keys). The question is: Is this the long-awaited validation of crypto, or the centralization it was designed to escape?
