BlackRock and other asset managers are luring Bitcoin whales to Wall Street, Bloomberg reported.
Accordingly, large whales in the US who have been holding large amounts of Bitcoin for a long time have begun converting their spot BTC assets into ETFs.
BlackRock is leading the way on this issue, and BlackRock's Head of Digital Assets, Robert Mitchnick, said the company has already facilitated the conversion of over $3 billion worth of Bitcoin into its ETF.
This July, a regulatory change allowed large investors to transfer their Bitcoin into an ETF and trade it for shares. At that point, both the IRS and SEC changed rules in July to allow investors to convert their Bitcoin directly into coins and into ETFs without paying taxes.
Following this rule change, large Bitcoin holders began shifting their funds to Wall Street ETFs.
BlackRock has completed over $3 billion worth of ETF conversions to date, while demand for Bitwise and Galaxy is also increasing.
BlackRock's Mitchnick declined to comment on the number of trades whales made under the IBIT ETF, but said greater clarity from regulators would increase volumes and the participation of major banks.
Mitchnick added that client demand ranges from investors looking to move just 20% of their Bitcoin into an ETF to those looking to transition entirely to TradFi.
*This is not investment advice.
Nice one