BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robert Mitchnick, said the $14 trillion asset manager won’t be very innovative with the types of exchange-traded funds it offers, even as it launched a staking-focused ETF on Thursday.
On Friday, Mitchnick spoke on CNBC’s Crypto World segment found that some of the cryptocurrency ETF structures that other asset managers are experimenting with may appeal to some investors, but BlackRock will continue to take a more measured approach:
“Will we see more exotic structures in space? I think there is no doubt,” Mitchnick said. “Some of them will be interesting. Some of them will appeal to investors.”
However, “we will take an insightful approach, looking at where else we can grow in this.”
Mitchnick said that while the overwhelming investor interest is in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), BlackRock also sees “pockets of interest in some other assets as well.”
“We continue to evaluate them as conditions evolve and maturity, liquidity, scale and use cases develop, but we are being very thoughtful about what we would put in the iShares ETF.”
BlackRock launched the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) on Thursday, which recorded trading volume of over $15.5 million and inflows of $43.5 million at the time of its debut, According to to Farside Investors data.
ETHB allows investors to capture profits through Ethereum staking rewards, in addition to the potential raise in the price of Ether.
ETHB is BlackRock’s second Ether product, following the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA). collected nearly $12 billion in proceeds since launch in July 2024.
BlackRock is working on an ETF that generates Bitcoin income
BlackRock is also considering offering a Bitcoin Premium Income ETF that would sell covered call options on Bitcoin futures, collecting premiums to generate a profit.
Regular payouts to investors, however, would take away the potential benefits of investing in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETH (IBIT) fund, which tracks the spot price of Bitcoin.
Related: Bitcoin ETFs Add $251M as Goldman Sachs Tops XRP ETF Holders
Speaking about IBIT, Mitchnick noted that investors in BlackRock’s flagship Bitcoin product are “disproportionately long-term buy-and-hold” investors – even when there was powerful selling pressure elsewhere in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
“They tend to opportunistically buy the dip,” Mitchnick said of investors in IBIT, which has occupied more than $63 billion has flowed since its launch in January 2024.
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