Today, among the main news, a screenshot of an advertising image of the BlackRock ETF on Bitcoin is circulating on X.
The screenshot takes up the graphic of the announcement that BlackRock has been using for days to promote its Bitcoin ETF also in the main financial newspapers in the world, such as the Wall Street Journal.
Latest news from BlackRock ETF: Bitcoin as progress
This announcement is dominated by the words “Bitcoin ETFs have landed”, but probably the most interesting thing is what they write at the bottom under the image of the plane that has landed.
They write:
“Take your share of progress.”
The reference to Bitcoin is explicit and evident, so much so that from this advertisement it is possible to deduce that BlackRock is offering Bitcoin to its customers as an investment in progress.
Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, who is very attentive to the dynamics linked to the new Bitcoin ETFs, points out how interesting it is that BlackRock does not compare Bitcoin to a currency or a commodity, but to progress.
Furthermore, the use of the word “share”, often also used for stock shares, suggests that BlackRock is proposing Bitcoin as an investment in an innovative technological initiative, and not in a currency or a commodity as the gold.
On the other hand, Ark’s historic Next Generation Internet ETF also has part of its portfolio made up of BTC derivatives.
BlackRock’s IBIT
Technically BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, was launched and is managed by iShares, which however is a subsidiary of BlackRock. So although it is actually called iShares Bitcoin Trust, with ticker IBIT, it is possible to define it without problems as the BlackRock ETF on Bitcoin.
Eric Balchunas defines this BlackRock advertisement as “simple, modern and effective”, with a perfect balance between the boring advertising of legacy funds and the more modern advertisements aimed at younger segments of the population.
Furthermore, he hypothesizes that upstream of this initiative there could even be a change in communication strategy of BlackRock itself, moving from “queen of liquidity” to something different.
BlackRock has existed since 1988, or more than 35 years, and is the largest asset manager in the world. Furthermore, it is a leader on the US market precisely when it comes to ETFs, issued and managed by its subsidiary iShares.
The iShares home page states that “iShares is driving progress for millions of people,” and this seems to confirm Balchunas’ hypothesis.
Furthermore, the home page itself is literally dominated by IBIT advertising.
BlackRock’s turning point according to the most recent news on Bitcoin ETFs
It is no coincidence that the 2024 iShares report is entitled “On the road from savings to investment”, because it wants to highlight how the investment strategies that the company is proposing this year are different from the past.
Mere savings management is the strategy that underlies the definition of “queen of liquidity” that Balchunas assigns to BlackRock, while the report for 2024 reveals that a change, or perhaps even a transformation, is underway.
It should not be forgotten that in recent years initiatives such as that of Ark, which aim above all at investments by placing managed ETFs on the market that have better returns than mere liquidity management, are probably challenging conservative strategies such as that of BlackRock. On the other hand, for example, the S&P 500 index in the last 5 years has risen from 2,700 to over 5,000 points.
In such a context it makes perfect sense that BlackRock’s new communication strategy also focuses on Bitcoin.
iShares’ 2025 report also states that the company thinks people are making the move from saving to investing because they hope for a better future and believe that long-term financial security and wealth creation are in the offing. their reach.
ETFs are used precisely to make simple financial instruments available to investors with less experience in which to invest.
This could ultimately prove to be a turning point not only for BlackRock and other asset managers, but also for Bitcoin.
According to Balchunas, this turning point could also be due to a greater propensity for risk and a greater awareness of the risk itself, in the financial sector, in the face of greater profit ambitions.
Bitcoin is perfect
In such a scenario, Bitcoin actually seems to be a perfect tool for such a breakthrough.
It is a risk-on asset, not a risk-off one, but it opposes an increase in risk to an increase in potential.
In fact, it is possible that the new generations are less conservative and more ambitious than previous ones when it comes to asset management.
Furthermore, the basic idea is not at all to move all investments to risk-on assets, but to add a bit of risk-on assets even in the most conservative strategies, perhaps with very low percentages.
For example, the hypothesis has been circulating for some time that almost all long-term investment strategies could include a share close to 1% of Bitcoin, i.e. a share low enough to reduce risks to a minimum. , but high enough to make any gains significant.
The goal of wealth management in the long term is not to earn a lot, but at least not to lose and to combat the loss of purchasing power of the currency due to inflation. In a time of high inflation it is more than obvious that you are looking for slightly higher returns, and to achieve this you need to increase exposure to risk-on assets.
Source: https://cryptonomist.ch/2024/02/20/ottime-news-etf-blackrock-bitcoin-progresso/
