BlackRock Has Begun Trading Bitcoin Futures
BlackRock held $6.5 million in CME bitcoin futures earlier this year with an appreciation of $360,000, new SEC filings show.
Mar 31, 2021 at 7:04 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/2G2V5FOVIVA3BDXIVDDWCUAPIM.jpg)
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Investments giant BlackRock has indeed "started to dabble" in the bitcoin market, according to regulatory filings published Wednesday.
A source familiar with the matter told CoinDesk the asset manager held $6.5 million in CME bitcoin futures contracts earlier this year. Those contracts had appreciated $360,457 on reporting day, according to documents reviewed by CoinDesk.
The holdings represented 0.03% of BlackRock’s massive Global Allocation Fund on reporting day Jan. 31 – “very small,” the source said. (The gains represent just 0.0014%.) BlackRock’s original 37 contracts expired on March 26.
BlackRock gave two of its funds the go-ahead to trade bitcoin futures in January.
BlackRock declined to comment beyond the filings.
UPDATE (March 31, 20:37 UTC): Adds fresh information about the total amount of bitcoin futures held by BlackRock.
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