Stephanie Douse 
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager has launched a blockchain-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) that allows investors to gain exposure to the crypto and blockchain industries.
The Blockchain and Tech ETF (IBLC) was added to the iShares product line on Wednesday by the world’s largest asset manager, which presently manages around $10 trillion in assets.
The $4.7 million exchange-traded funds (ETF) do not own cryptocurrencies or digital assets directly but rather follow a number of worldwide companies active in the industry.
The ETF is made up of 41 different holdings, with Coinbase, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, accounting for 11.45 percent of the total. Marathon Digital Holdings (11.19 percent) and Riot Blockchain Inc. (10.41 percent) are the next largest Bitcoin miners, with 11.19 percent and 10.41 percent of the total holdings, respectively. The ETF now has a good 9.15 percent US dollar cash position, indicating that it is ready for future acquisitions.
BlackRock’s view on the crypto market
In conjunction with the launch of the new ETF, BlackRock released a paper outlining three major market segments that are now undergoing significant changes.
The report explains how positive BlackRock is on the crypto market, claiming that while most of the focus on digital assets is on price and volatility, the true potential of blockchain has yet to be fully realized.
“We believe the broader opportunity — leveraging blockchain technology for payments, contracts and consumption broadly — has not yet been priced in.”
The study also discusses the adoption of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), pointing out that 87 countries are currently testing the technology.
Institutional investors are becoming interested in crypto ETFs as a method to obtain exposure to the cryptocurrency market. After a recent Nasdaq survey found that 72 percent of the 500 financial advisors polled would prefer to invest client assets in a spot fund over a futures-based one, talk of a spot Bitcoin ETF has resurfaced.