BlackRock names bitcoin ETF a top 2025 theme despite price slump

BlackRock names bitcoin ETF a top 2025 theme despite price slump The world's largest asset manager is promoting its underperforming bitcoin fund over higher-fee winners, signaling long-term commitment. What to know: BlackRock named its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) one of its top three investment themes for 2025, despite bitcoin falling more than 4% this year. IBIT has attracted over $25 billion in inflows since January, making it the sixth most popular ETF by new investment this year. The move signals BlackRock’s conviction that bitcoin belongs in diversified portfolios, even as traditional alternatives outperform. BlackRock named its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) exchange-traded fund (ETF) one of the top three investment themes for 2025, a striking move given bitcoin’s slide this year. BlackRock named its bitcoin ETF as a top investment theme for 2025. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images modified by CoinDesk) The firm placed IBIT alongside two more traditional offerings: the iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) and the iShares Top 20 U.S. Stocks ETF (TOPT). See all newsletters Bitcoin has dropped more than 4% year-to-date, the first decline in three years, and IBIT has mirrored that performance. Even so, the ETF has seen strong investor interest. IBIT ranks sixth among all ETFs by 2025 inflows, pulling in over $25 billion since January. “It's easy to frame this as BlackRock simply promoting its highest-revenue product,” said Nate Geraci, president of the ETF Store. “But I see it more as the firm doubling down on its conviction that bitcoin belongs in diversified portfolios.” Geraci noted that BlackRock has other ETFs, like the gold-focused IAU, that are outperforming IBIT and charge higher fees. Yet the firm is spotlighting a product that underperformed in 2025, a rare move in an industry that typically pushes its top-performing funds. “If the objective were purely revenue generation, BlackRock has no shortage of ETFs with significantly higher fees that it could emphasize instead,” he said. “Asset managers aren’t typically in the business of spotlighting underperforming products, particularly when they have a deep bench of outperforming alternatives they could highlight.” The inclusion of IBIT as a top 2025 theme signals a long-term bet on the crypto asset by the world’s largest asset manager. For investors who still see crypto as speculative or fringe, BlackRock’s positioning of bitcoin alongside cash and stocks may shift that perception. More For You Protocol Research: GoPlus Security What to know: As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M. GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month. Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at...

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