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US multinational investment giant BlackRock has extended its lead as the world's dominant asset manager, reaching the $11.5 trillion assets under management (AUM) milestone. As revealed in its third-quarter earnings report, the company said assets under management increased $2.4 trillion year-over-year due to $456 billion in net inflows and positive market movements.
The year Bitcoin was introduced
Even though BlackRock has been laying the groundwork for the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem, its first major product, the Spot Bitcoin ETF, was launched this year.
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This product marked a complete turning point for BlackRock, a traditionally conservative company. With the introduction of Bitcoin, CEO Larry Fink is now one of the digital currency's leading proponents. It remains unclear what plans the company has for the iShares Bitcoin Trust product overall due to the increase in AUM.
While the Bitcoin ETF is BlackRock's flagship and most popular crypto product, BlackRock is also fully invested in the iShares Ethereum Trust, an ETH ETF. Despite the overall poor performance of Ethereum ETF products, BlackRock still maintains a lead among all issuers.
Given the significant increase in BlackRock's AUM, one might assume that Bitcoin and Ethereum contributed significantly to this new milestone.
Will BlackRock do anything more?
According to the Bitcoin ETF product page, BlackRock is holding 369,640.1483 BTC as it continues to buy on the downtrend. Considering this portfolio as a whole, the company is one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin and could increase its bets now that it has more capital reserves.
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As a regulated investment organization, BlackRock combines a conservative approach with the adoption of new technology. As such, the company's current capital base may encourage it to take more calculated risks on the coin in the future.
Despite BlackRock's stance, not all rivals share its vision for Bitcoin. Companies like Vanguard have specifically issued highly publicized disclaimers saying they have no involvement in Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general.
