In 2025 BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), launched in January 2024, became the fastest exchange-traded fund ever to accumulate $70 billion in assets. By year-end, executives described the firm's bitcoin ETFs as a top revenue source, generating hundreds of millions in fees.
The fund's rapid growth, later surpassing 700,000 bitcoin under management, demonstrated the scale of pent-up institutional demand for regulated bitcoin exposure.
Bitcoin, institutionalised
IBIT's success reshaped how traditional allocators access crypto, channelling flows through a familiar, regulated wrapper rather than direct custody. It cemented spot ETFs as one of the most consequential developments in the asset class's march toward the mainstream.