BlackRock talks about low demand for ETH compared to BTC

The company is awaiting approval of an application to launch a spot ETH ETF

25.03.2024 - 08:20

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2 min

What’s new? Robert Mitchnick, the head of digital assets at the world’s largest investment firm BlackRock, has said that clients have shown little interest in Ethereum compared to bitcoin, which remains their top priority, and that demand for other cryptocurrencies is “very, very little.” Mitchnick also noted that the company does not intend to launch a wide range of crypto products.

Material by CoinDesk

What else is known? The senior executive called the misconception of the crypto industry that BlackRock is preparing to launch various digital asset services a misconception. “That’s really not what we’re focused on,” Mitchnick said during the Bitcoin Investor Day conference in New York when asked if the company would launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on the “dog” meme token Dogwifhat (WIF) on the Solana network.

On January 10, the US securities regulator SEC allowed ten spot bitcoin ETFs to market, including BlackRock’s IBIT. In less than two months since it began trading, IBIT has become one of the five largest ETFs in all categories, significantly outperforming other bitcoin fund issuers with $13,34 billion in inflows and accumulating $15,51 billion in assets under management.

According to Mitchnick, one of the reasons BlackRock, which had opposed bitcoin in previous years, decided to launch a BTC ETF was the steady demand from clients in both bull and bear markets, as well as their dissatisfaction with the difficulty of accessing the asset.

BlackRock previously unveiled its BUIDL tokenized asset fund on the Ethereum network, with digital asset manager Securitize and crypto exchange Coinbase acting as partners in the product.

The company also filed an application with the SEC to launch a spot ETH ETF, but officials postponed the deadline for a decision on it. According to industry experts, the product could be allowed on the market in May, but it is more likely to happen in 2025.

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