Three BlackRock funds now have the ability to allocate to bitcoin ETFs.
The fund giant — with roughly $10 trillion in assets under management — said in a Thursday filing that it may buy shares of bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) traded on “national securities exchanges” for the BlackRock Global Allocation Fund.
The disclosure came a few days after the company added similar language to the prospectus of its Strategic Income Opportunities Portfolio and the BlackRock Strategic Global Bond Fund.
Such an allocation to bitcoin ETFs could include buying the firm’s own fund, the filings indicate. BlackRock launched the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) alongside nine competing offerings on Jan. 11.
As of market close on Thursday, IBIT had seen $9.7 billion of net inflows in its first two months of trading.
Read more: Is it too soon to name BlackRock the bitcoin ETF segment winner?
A BlackRock spokesperson confirmed the addition of bitcoin ETPs as “an eligible investment vehicle” within some of its funds, but declined to share whether the change would in fact lead to such allocations.
“Our actions in this space will continue to be guided by what is best for our clients and the applicable investment strategy of the fund,” the representative told Blockworks in an email.
Possible allocations to bitcoin ETFs for these funds represents an additional way for the funds to gain crypto exposure.
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BlackRock revealed in January 2021 filings that the Strategic Income Opportunities Fund and the Global Allocation Fund could invest in cash-settled bitcoin futures traded on commodity exchanges registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Read more: Which mutual funds, ETFs are making crypto-related investments?
BlackRock had long exposure to 87 exchange-traded bitcoin futures contracts via its Global Allocation Fund, as of Oct. 31, a firm report indicates.
Such exposure in the Strategic Income Opportunities portfolio amounted to 203 bitcoin futures contracts, as of Dec. 31.
