IBIT, from crypto bet to flagship product

Launched less than two years ago, IBIT is no longer a bold experiment: it is now a cornerstone of the iShares range. With $93.5bn in assets under management, equivalent to approximately 760,000 BTC, or nearly 60% of the US spot Bitcoin ETF market, and 0.25% in management fees, the fund generates approximately $244.5m per year. According to ETF analyst Eric Balchunas (Bloomberg Intelligence), IBIT already outperforms historic giants such as IWF (Russell 1000 Growth) and EFA (MSCI EAFE) by more than $25m in annual revenue. And it is just a hair's breadth away—a little over $5bn—from crossing the symbolic $100bn mark.

Revenue by BlackRock fund
Bloomberg Intelligence

To gauge the feat:Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF (VOO) took more than five years (2,011 days) to reach $100bn. IBIT is approaching that mark in... 435 days. A straight line, driven by both institutional appetite and mainstream adoption of regulated bitcoin exposure. Normalization also comes through reassuring names. For example,Harvard's endowment fund has taken $116 million in IBIT —another signal to investment committees that bitcoin is cautiously, slowly but surely entering the realm of assets that can be "purchased" by large institutional pockets.

IBIT ETF assets under management
Bloomberg

BlackRock's crypto strategy, version 2.0

Building on the success of IBIT, BlackRock is already rolling out the next step: setting up a trust in Delaware for a future "Bitcoin Premium Income ETF." The idea is to sell covered calls on bitcoin futures to generate regular income in exchange for a portion of the upside potential. According to Bloomberg, the roadmap remains focused on bitcoin and ether— no rush to altcoins, but an expanded range around the two flagship assets.

Important: It should be noted that an ETF is not the same as self-held bitcoin. IBIT provides price exposure, not censorship resistance or key sovereignty. To benefit from the "hard" properties of the protocol (no third party can seize or freeze), you must hold your BTC yourself. The ETF is a package: convenient, regulated, but not a complete substitute.

A useful reminder: Self-custody vs. delegation

Self-custody means that you keep your bitcoins yourself, using a private key (a string of words called a seed phrase or "recovery phrase"). This phrase is the key that proves to the network that you are the owner: if you lose or disclose it, your funds are lost or stolen—there is no "customer service" to recover them. To secure this key, a hardware wallet (a small, specialized offline USB key) is often used and, to go further, multisig (for example, 2 out of 3 keys are required to move funds, which prevents a single loss from compromising everything). The advantage? Full sovereignty: no one can censor a transaction (prevent it from going through) or freeze your bitcoins (block them). The downside? You are the administrator: you must back up the seed (on paper/metal), have procedures in place in case of death (inheritance plan), perform regular checks... in short, there is no room for error.

Delegating to platforms means entrusting custody to an exchange (buy/sell platform) or exposing the price of bitcoin via an ETF (exchange-traded fund such as IBIT), without directly holding the cryptos. It's convenient: mobile app, password, tax statements, sometimes insurance, and no need to learn about key security. But you accept the risk of an intermediary: failure, hacking, bankruptcy, or suspension of withdrawals. Another nuance: with an ETF, you own an off-chain (outside the blockchain) financial share that tracks the price of bitcoin, not on-chain bitcoins (on the blockchain) that you can send yourself; you don't benefit from any forks (technical splits in the network that sometimes create new tokens) or certain native crypto features.

In short:

  • Self-custody = total control, no intermediary, but technical and organizational responsibility (security, backups, transmission).

  • Delegation = simplicity, compliance, and turnkey services, but dependence on a third party, fees, and no technical rights on the chain.

The right choice is your balance between convenience, cost, and control. Many combine a long-term self-custody core (secure, multisig if necessary) and a delegated pocket (exchange/ETF) for liquidity and everyday convenience.