Advisors ‘wary’ of bitcoin ETFs are on a slow adoption journey, says BlackRock exec
Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images
The long-awaited bitcoin exchange traded funds launched in January, and financial advisors are on their way – though gradually – toward adopting them, according to BlackRock’s Samara Cohen.
For now, about 80% of bitcoin ETF purchases have likely been coming from “self-directed investors who have made their own allocation, often through an online brokerage account,” she said, speaking at the Coinbase State of Crypto Summit in New York City on Thursday. The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) was among the funds to debut earlier this year.
Cohen, BlackRock’s chief investment officer of ETF and index investments, noted that hedge funds and brokerages have also been buyers, based on last quarter’s 13-F filings, but registered investment advisors have been a little more “wary.”
CNBC recently polled its Advisor Council about why they and their colleagues are so cautious about the new products, which represent a regulated and familiar investment product for a new asset class that has garnered significant interest in recent years. Responses ranged from bitcoin’s notorious price volatility to the flagship cryptocurrency being too nascent to have established a significant track record. Regulatory compliance and the crypto’s reputation for fraud and scandal were also on advisors’ minds.
“I would call them wary … that’s their job,” Cohen said of the skeptical financial advisors.
“An investment advisor is a fiduciary to their clients,” she added. “This is an asset class that has had 90% price volatility at times in history, and their job is really to construct portfolios and do the risk analysis and due diligence. They’re doing that right now.”
The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in 2024
“This is a moment, in terms of really putting forward important data, risk analytics [and determining] the role bitcoin can play in a portfolio, what sort of allocation is appropriate given an investor’s risk tolerance, their liquidity needs,” she added. “That’s what an advisor is supposed to do, so I think this journey that we’re on is exactly the right one and they’re doing their jobs.”
Cohen said she sees bitcoin ETFs as a bridge between crypto and traditional finance – particularly for investors who may be interested in making an allocation to bitcoin without having to manage their risk across two different ecosystems. Before the ETFs, the existing onramps into crypto were insufficient for what some investors wanted to do, she said.
Coinbase chief financial officer Alesia Haas said bitcoin is “on a slow journey of adoption” – a theme echoed across the conference sessions.
Blue Macellari, head of digital assets strategy for T. Rowe Price, pointed to the 1% allocation that some investors deem to be a safe, comfortable amount. She said she sees portfolio allocations into bitcoin as binary events, where they should be greater than 1% or zero, but she also acknowledged the cautious approach toward adoption.
“There’s a psychological component where people need to test the waters and get comfortable,” Macellari said. “It’s a paradigm shift … it takes time for people to ease their way into it.”
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
OpenAI will not be allowed use the word “cameo” to name any products or features in its Sora app for a month after a federal judge placed a temporary restraining order for the term on the AI startup.
U.S. District Judge Eumi K. Lee granted a temporary restraining order on Monday, blocking OpenAI from using the “cameo” mark or similar words like “Kameo” or “CameoVideo” for any function related to Sora, the company’s AI-generated video app.
“We disagree with the complaint’s assertion that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word ‘cameo’, and we look forward to continuing to make our case to the court,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC.
Lee granted the order after OpenAI was sued in October by Cameo, a platform that allows users to purchase personalized videos from celebrities. Cameo filed a trademark lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company following the launch of Sora’s “Cameo” feature, which allowed users to generate characters of themselves or others and insert them into videos.
“We are gratified by the court’s decision, which recognizes the need to protect consumers from the confusion that OpenAI has created by using the Cameo trademark,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis said in a statement. “While the court’s order is temporary, we hope that OpenAI will agree to stop using our mark permanently to avoid any further harm to the public or Cameo.”
The order is set to expire on Dec. 22, and a hearing for whether the halt should be made permanent is scheduled for Dec. 19.
Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., during a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images
OpenAI announced a new tool called “shopping research” on Monday, right as consumers will be ramping up spending ahead of the holiday season.
The startup said the tool is designed for ChatGPT users who are looking for detailed, well-researched shopping guides. The guides include top products, key differences between the products and the latest information from retailers, according to a blog.
Users will be able to tailor their guides based on their budget, what features they care about and who they are shopping for. OpenAI said it will take a couple of minutes to generate answers with shopping research, so users who are looking for simple answers like a price check can still rely on a regular ChatGPT response.
When users submit prompts to ChatGPT that say things like, “Find the quietest cordless stick vacuum for a small apartment,” or “I need a gift for my four year old niece who loves art,” they will see the shopping research tool pop up automatically, OpenAI said. The tool can also be accessed from the menu.
OpenAI has been pushing deeper into e-commerce in recent months. The company introduced a feature called Instant Checkout in September that allows users to make purchases directly from eligible merchants through ChatGPT.
Shopping research users will be able to make purchases with Instant Checkout in the future, OpenAI said on Monday.
OpenAI said its shopping research results are organic and based on publicly available retail websites, and that it will not share users’ chats with retailers. It’s possible that shopping research will make mistakes around product availability and pricing, the company said.
Shopping research is rolling out to OpenAI’s Free, Go, Plus and Pro users who are logged in to ChatGPT.
A Tesla logo outside the company’s Tilburg Factory and Delivery Center.
Karol Serewis | Getty Images
Tesla is trying to get its “FSD Supervised” technology approved for use in the Netherlands. But Dutch regulators are telling Tesla fans to stop pressuring safety authority RDW on the matter, and that their efforts will have “no influence” on the ultimate decision.
The RDW issued a statement on Monday directed at those who have been sending messages to try and get the agency to clear Tesla’s premium partially automated driving system, marketed in the U.S. as the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) option. It’s not yet available for use in the Netherlands or Europe broadly.
“We thank everyone who has already done so and would like to ask everyone not to contact us about this,” the agency said. “It takes up unnecessary time for our customer service. Moreover, this will have no influence on whether or not the planning is met. Road safety is the RDW’s top priority: admission is only possible once the safety of the system has been convincingly demonstrated.”
The regulator said it will make a decision only after Elon Musk’s company shows that the technology meets the country’s stringent vehicle safety standards. The RDW has booked a schedule allowing Tesla to demonstrate its systems, and said it could decide on authorization as early as February.
Last week, Tesla posted on X encouraging its followers to contact RDW to express their wishes to have the systems approved.
The post claimed, “RDW has committed to granting Netherlands National approval in February 2026,” adding a message to “please contact them via link below to express your excitement & thank them for making this happen as soon as possible.” Tesla said other EU countries could then follow suit.
The RDW corrected Tesla on Monday, saying in a statement on its official website, that such approval is not guaranteed and had not been promised.
Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Tesla’s FSD-equipped vehicles in October following reports of widespread traffic violations tied to use of the systems.
The cars Tesla sells today, even with FSD Supervised engaged, require a human driver ready to brake or steer at any time.
For years, Musk has promised that Tesla customers would soon be able to turn their existing electric vehicles into robotaxis, capable of generating income for owners while they sleep or go on vacation, with a simple software update.
That hasn’t happened yet, and Tesla has since informed owners that future upgrades will require new hardware as well as software releases.
Tesla is testing a Robotaxi-brand ride-hailing service in Texas and elsewhere, but it includes human safety drivers or supervisors on board who either conduct the drives or manually intervene as needed. Musk has said the company aims to remove human driers in Austin, Texas, by the end of 2025.
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