The BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has achieved a remarkable milestone by generating more annual fee revenue than the firm’s flagship SP 500 tracker, despite being much smaller in size.

The crypto fund generates an estimated $187.2 million in annual fees from its $75 billion in assets with a 0.25% expense ratio. In contrast, the BlackRock iShares Core SP 500 ETF (IVV) makes $187.1 million from $624 billion in assets and a 0.03% expense ratio, reported Bloomberg on July 2.

IBIT is nearly nine times smaller but charges over eight times more in fees.

Simply a Machine

Nate Geraci, president at NovaDius Wealth Management (formerly ETF Store), told the outlet that “IBIT overtaking IVV in annual fee revenue is reflective of both the surging investor demand for Bitcoin and the significant fee compression in core equity exposure.”

“Although spot Bitcoin ETFs are priced very competitively, IBIT is proof that investors are willing to pay up for exposures they view as truly additive to their portfolios.”

The nearly $75bil iShares Bitcoin ETF has only one month of outflows since Jan 2024 launch…

Now generates more fee revenue for BlackRock than its largest ETF, the iShares SP 500 ETF.

Simply a machine.

I offer a few thoughts here.

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Since launching in January 2024, IBIT has captured $52 billion of the $54 billion in total spot Bitcoin ETF inflows and holds over 55% of all Bitcoin ETF assets. The fund has also seen inflows in 17 of its first 18 months.

Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, told the outlet that it was an indication of how much “pent-up demand” there was for investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin as part of their overall portfolio.

“It also illustrates the leadership of Bitcoin in the crypto space where its perceived utility as a store of value has essentially left the others in its dust,” he added.

The BlackRock fund has not seen an outflow day since June 6 and has had $1.47 billion in inflows over the past fortnight. It is “simply a machine,” said Geraci.

Busy Week For Crypto ETFs

The REX-Osprey Solana staking ETF launched on Wednesday and saw $33 million in trading volume on its first day. Solana fans were celebrating the statistic, but it is dwarfed by the first days of trading for spot Bitcoin and Ethereum funds.

In related news, the SEC has approved Grayscale’s filing to convert its Digital Large-Cap Fund into an ETF, which is comprised of a basket of the top five cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.