In today’s BlackRock Bitcoin news, three-quarters of investors in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF had never owned an ETF before buying it, and once in, many began purchasing S&P 500 funds, gold ETFs and AI products from the same issuer.
The narrative has always been that Wall Street money would flow into crypto via these wrappers. The data indicates that something more interesting is happening in the opposite direction.
The central tension in this story: Bitcoin ETFs were designed as an on-ramp for traditional investors getting into digital assets, but they are increasingly functioning as an on-ramp for crypto-native investors getting into TradFi, and BlackRock is the destination.
This revelation from BlackRock came as Bitcoin USD fell -3% overnight from above $64,000 to below $62,400 as investors feared $60,000 was on the way.
BlackRock Bitcoin News: Reversed Adoption Numbers Behind IBIT
BlackRock’s Jay Jacobs Just Said $BTC Is Now Too Big to Ignore and Has Real Use
This is the same BlackRock that manages billions and runs the largest spot Bitcoin ETF… they also recently said that Bitcoin behaves differently than stocks and becomes an alternative… pic.twitter.com/lcMl3aX94Y
– SBlockSpy (@SBlockspy) June 18, 2026
BlackRock’s Jay Jacobs Just Said $BTC Is Now Too Big to Ignore and Has Real UseJay Jacobs, US head of equity ETFs at BlackRock, disclosed the 75% figure in an interview on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction podcast on June 19. “IBIT was a way for traditional investors to now get into digital assets,” Jacobs said. “But we’ve seen a lot of people really getting into IBIT, starting with digital asset ETPs.”
The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), launched in January 2024, now holds 765,936 BTC and manages $48 billion in assets, making it the largest spot Bitcoin ETF by AUM. This scale is important because the cross-selling model described by Jacobs is not a rounding error: it represents a structurally new cohort of investors absorbed into BlackRock’s broader suite of products.
Once IBIT investors are in the ecosystem, Jacobs noted, many buy BlackRock’s S&P 500 ETF (IVV), its gold fund (IAU), and its AI-focused product (BAI). For Bitcoin maximalists who have spent years arguing that BTC made traditional index funds obsolete, there is a certain irony in this sequence. Wall Street has been buying up Bitcoin ETFs through exactly this type of product architecture.
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What BITA Reveals About BlackRock’s Next Step
(SOURCE: BlackRock.com)
In other BlackRock Bitcoin news, on Wednesday June 17, BlackRock launched the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA), a product that generates monthly income by selling covered calls on Bitcoin holdings.
A covered call strategy means the fund writes options contracts that give a buyer the right to buy Bitcoin at a fixed price, collecting the premium as income while capping some of the upside. This is a yield generation structure borrowed directly from equity income funds, now applied to a crypto asset.
BITA is not designed for someone who wants maximum exposure to Bitcoin. It targets yield-seeking investors, retirees, income spreaders, and RIA model portfolios who want to incorporate BTC but need cash flow.
BlackRock’s launch of BITA indicates that the company is now building a product architecture around Bitcoin like it does for stocks: spot exposure, income variants, and potentially large-scale options overlays.
Jacobs indicated that BlackRock’s near-term roadmap remains focused on scaling IBIT and its Ethereum equivalent (ETHA) rather than launching altcoin ETFs – only a small fraction of the firm’s clients currently hold either product, suggesting significant headroom before the firm needs to expand the token roster.
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The thesis of the great convergence and the place of pre-IPO perps
BlackRock calls the merger of DeFi and TradFi the “Great Convergence,” suggesting a shift from a competitive mindset to a collaborative one. Jacobs notes that there will be an increasing emphasis on integrating the two worlds.
A recent example occurred during the SpaceX IPO, where crypto traders accessed pre-IPO exposure via perpetual futures contracts, as trading volume increased from around $1 billion in early May to around $22 billion.
Binance has led the way as the largest trading platform, reflecting a trend where crypto traders create their own structures and then adapt them to fit regulatory frameworks. Growing interest in Bitcoin ETFs, including Fidelity’s FBTC, highlights the growing demand.
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The article 75% of BlackRock IBIT ETF Buyers Were TradFi Virgins: They’re Now Buying SPX Funds appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
