Key Points
- BlackRock announces Citi, Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Citadel as additional buyers for its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF.
- These firms join JP Morgan and Jane Street as authorized participants in the ETF.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has disclosed the addition of four Wall Street firms to its roster of authorized participants for its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. The newly enlisted firms include Citi, Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Citadel. These entities join JP Morgan and Jane Street, who were already participating in the ETF.
This information was made public in a recent amendment to the ETF’s Form S-1, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Role of Authorized Participants
An Authorized Participant (AP) is an entity that purchases the underlying assets of an ETF, such as Bitcoin in this case, to create its shares. This process ensures the liquidity of the ETF market. On average, US-listed ETFs have 24 contracted APs and five active APs, according to BlackRock’s website.
The exact timing of these firms’ recognition as authorized participants has not been clarified. BlackRock was not immediately available for comment.
Change in Attitude Towards Cryptocurrency?
Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, suggests that the firms might have been providing liquidity for the ETFs for several weeks without publicly disclosing their involvement. This could be due to the negative stigma associated with the cryptocurrency industry.
Balchunas suggests that the firms’ decision to publicly acknowledge their role as APs could indicate a shift in their attitudes towards the industry. He also speculated that the investment firms might have previously been hesitant to be identified as authorized participants of spot Bitcoin ETFs, but are now more comfortable due to the success of the ETFs.
Institutional investors are increasingly participating in spot Bitcoin ETFs, driven by a surge in Bitcoin’s price and growing investor interest in crypto. The collective trading volume of these funds was approximately $190 billion as of last Thursday.
The popularity of spot Bitcoin ETFs has surged in tandem with the price of the underlying asset. Bitcoin’s price has risen more than 40% since the day before the first batch of spot Bitcoin ETF applications received regulatory approval in the U.S.