The world’s largest asset management firm with more than $10 trillion in AUM, Blackrock (BLK) plans on listing a bitcoin exchange traded product (ETP) in Europe, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
The fund would be based in Switzerland and BlackRock could start marketing it as soon as this month, according to the report.
This would be the giant asset manager’s first crypto-linked ETP outside of America. Blackrock’s U.S.-based iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) has been a wild success, accumulating nearly $60 billion in assets in just more than one year since opening for business.
BlackRock’s move would be the latest in a string of investment firms looking to dive further into providing crypto-backed securities in Europe. Kraken recently secured a license that will enable it to offer derivatives, joining others like Bitstamp and FTX EU.
The company’s entry into the European crypto ETP ecosystem could further fuel the competitive response that’s been seen among various providers, which include fee waivers on several products, some expense fees for ETP’s have been as high as 2.5%. In the U.S., a similar competitive response came after these funds were launched in Jan. 2024.
A lot of question marks still occur around this product, including the fee structure, which would have big implications for the performance of the ETP. “Don’t know the fee yet, that will be a big variable,” said Senior Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas. “U.S. ETFs blow away the rest of the world in cost and liquidity but either way shows commitment from the world’s biggest asset manager who has a big presence overseas.”
U.S.-based bitcoin ETFs currently have 91% of the world market, said Balchunas.
Blackrock did not comment before press time.