Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, has published a tweet about BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT. Replying to an X user @rafaelnobel, Balchunas expressed a view that IBIT is unlikely to surpass the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) or Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO).
IBIT unlikely to outpace SPY or VOO: Balchunas
An hour ago, the Bloomberg’s ETF analyst tweeted that VOO had surpassed SPY in asset value. VOO holds $631,876 million worth of assets, while SPY is worth $630,394 million.
@rafaelnobel tweeted that IBIT is going to be next. However, Eric Balchunas poured cold water on his expectations. Balchunas admitted that BlackRock’s IBIT indeed managed to reach $50 billion worth of BTC last year (during the first year after launch), therefore IBIT is “def one to watch”.
$IBIT did reach $50b in first year (it took $VOO six years to hit that mark) so def one to watch but it would take a ton more adoption (flows) AND you probably need a break in correlation with stocks. But btc tends to go down (worse) when stocks decline, which will make it hard… https://t.co/CCud9vzomE
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 18, 2025
However, he added that IBIT would need “a ton more adoption (flows)”. Another big driver necessary for IBIT to become number one is that it needs to break its correlation from the stock market. The problem is, according to Balchunas, the world’s largest cryptocurrency tends to decline with stocks decline. And this “will make it hard to gain ground on VOO, IVV, VTI etc.”
Bloomberg’s analyst stated that it’s not worth holding ones breath over IBIT.
As of February 17 this year, BlackRock’s IBIT holds a total of 587,050 Bitcoin.
Saylor’s strategy stops buying Bitcoin
In today’s tweet, Strategy’s (formerly MicroStrategy) Michael Saylor executive chairman announced that last week the company did not sell any class A common stock stock as part of its at-the-market equity offering program.
No stock sale took place, therefore Strategy did not buy any more Bitcoin. As of February 17, the company holds a total of 478,740 Bitcoins purchased for approximately $31.1 billion at roughly $65,033 per one Bitcoin.
Last week, @Strategy did not sell any shares of class A common stock under its at-the-market equity offering program, and did not purchase any bitcoin. As of 2/17/2025, we hodl 478,740 $BTC acquired for ~$31.1 billion at ~$65,033 per bitcoin. $MSTR https://t.co/gDVOokFY8p
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) February 18, 2025
Saylor recently rebranded MicroStrategy into Strategy with a B sign with the four strokes on the logo next to the title. Thus, Saylor emphasized the company’s determination to focus on the Bitcoin strategy adopted in August 2020.
Earlier this week, Saylor also shared 21 Bitcoin rules, which included important principles to follow for true Bitcoiners. That included the classic one: “Only buy Bitcoin with the money you can’t afford to lose” and “You do not sell your Bitcoin.”
