BlackRock Taps Citi, Citadel, and Goldman Sachs as Bitcoin Purchasers for Its ETF

The Block reported that BlackRock has disclosed the involvement of four additional Wall Street firms in purchasing bitcoin for its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF.

According to an amendment submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Citi, Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Citadel have joined JP Morgan and Jane Street as authorized participants for the world's largest asset manager's bitcoin ETF.

Authorized Participants (APs) are entities responsible for acquiring the underlying assets of an ETF, such as bitcoin in this case, to create its shares and ensure liquidity in the ETF market. BlackRock's website indicates that U.S.-listed ETFs typically have an average of 24 "contracted" APs and five "active" APs.

Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, suggests that these firms might have been providing liquidity for the ETFs for some time without publicly acknowledging their involvement due to the cryptocurrency industry's stigma.

Balchunas believes that the timing of these firms publicly identifying as APs could indicate a shift in their attitudes toward the industry, possibly influenced by the success and significant inflows into the ETFs.

Institutional investors are increasingly showing interest in spot bitcoin ETFs amid a surge in bitcoin's price. The collective trading volume of these funds reached approximately $190 billion as of Thursday.

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The Block