BlackRock’s ETF chief says 75% of its bitcoin buyers are crypto fans new to Wall Street
Marquee at the main entrance to BlackRock headquarters building in Manhattan.
Erik Mcgregor | Lightrocket | Getty Images
SALT LAKE CITY — A year ago, Samara Cohen believed there was so much pent-up demand for bitcoin that she and her team at BlackRock launched one of the first-ever spot bitcoin exchange-traded products in the U.S. Now investors are flocking in, and a lot of them are crypto enthusiasts who are new to Wall Street.
Cohen, who heads up the asset manager’s exchange-traded funds and index investments as chief investment officer, told CNBC that BlackRock now sees the demand was for a better way to access bitcoin. “It was for the ETF wrapper,” she told CNBC on stage at the Permissionless Conference in Utah.
The total market cap of all eleven spot bitcoin ETFs now tops $63 billion, with total flows of nearly $20 billion. In the last five trading days alone, spot bitcoin ETFs have seen net inflows of more than $2.1 billion, with BlackRock accounting for half of those sales.
The spike in trading volume comes as bitcoin hit its highest level since July this week, trading above $68,300. Bitcoin ended the third quarter up around 140% from the same quarter a year ago, outpacing the S&P 500, as these spot token funds and the crypto market cap move higher in lock-step. Crypto-aligned stock Coinbase closed up about 24% this week, its best week since February.
Cohen told CNBC that part of the strategy for attracting customers to its funds was teaching crypto investors about the benefits of exchange-traded products (ETPs).
13F filings, which offer quarterly reads on equity positions taken by large investors, show that 80% of the buyers of these new spot bitcoin products in the U.S. are direct investors. Of the 80% of direct investors, Cohen told CNBC that 75% had never before owned an iShare, one of the best-known and largest ETF providers on the planet.
“So we went into this journey with the expectation that we needed to educate ETF investors on crypto and on bitcoin specifically,” said Cohen. “As it turns out, we have done a lot of education of crypto investors on the benefits of the ETP wrapper.”
Before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission green-lit spot bitcoin funds in January, investors had a few ways to buy and custody cryptocurrencies. A centralized exchange like Coinbase was among the most user-friendly options for U.S investors. But the blockbuster debut of bitcoin ETPs has laid bare to Cohen and others across Wall Street, that crypto exchanges weren’t giving digital asset investors everything they needed.
BlackRock’s IBIT vs. bitcoin YTD
It helps that the U.S. is a huge market for digital assets. New data from Chainalysis shows that North America remains the biggest crypto market globally, accounting for nearly 23% of all crypto trading volume. The blockchain analytics platform estimates that between July 2023 and July 2024, there was $1.3 trillion in on-chain value received.
Venture firm a16z found in its recently released State of Crypto report that more than 40 million Americans hold crypto.
So far, adoption has mostly been through wealth management clients asking advisors to add new spot crypto products to their portfolio.
In August, Morgan Stanley was the first big bank to allow its 15,000 financial advisors to pitch bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock and Fidelity to clients with a net worth over $1.5 million. Other firms are still performing in-house due diligence before allowing their armies of FAs to start actively pitching the funds.
“Wealth manager allocators have not been allocating,” VanEck CEO Jan van Eck told CNBC in Utah. “I mean, they’re barely even warming up.”
Van Eck drew parallels to the European market, where the company has 12 token-based products trading in Europe.
“It’s exactly what we see in Europe,” he said. “Very few private banks have really approved investment in bitcoin or ethereum or anything else in a major way.” Van Eck said his company has about $2 billion in its European crypto ETPs, and that a lot of the volume is from individual investors.
Wall Street needs rules from lawmakers on Capitol Hill before it gets more comfortable with crypto.
ETFs create transparency
Cohen thinks that in a lot of ways, ETFs and blockchain technology are solving for similar things.
“ETFs have been a decentralizing force in TradFi markets that have brought a lot more access and transparency, and importantly, really accelerated in growth during the post crisis 2008, 2009 period,” said Cohen, referring to traditional finance markets.
“I find it incredibly meaningful to look at the fact that the bitcoin whitepaper was published on October 31, 2008, and then you have the G20 leaders from around the world meeting to discuss the aftermath of the financial crisis and how do you create more transparency through public reporting,” Cohen continued.
BlackRock took on less risk by using counterparty clearing and multilateral trading. In TradFi markets, those moves created huge tailwinds for ETFs.
“Then at the same time, DeFi is becoming a reality over the intervening 15 years,” she said.
“Was this a win for Bitcoin? Was this a win for ETPs? To me, the answer is: It’s a win for investors, to the extent we can effectively marry these ecosystems which are solving for the same goals.”
Rivian (RIVN) is already preparing for changes under the Trump administration. In anticipation of Trump’s new auto tariffs, Rivian built a reserve of EV batteries from Asia as a countermeasure.
Rivian has a plan to overcome Trump’s tariffs
At this point, nearly every major automaker has acknowledged the damaging impact of tariffs on vehicle imports in the US.
GM, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Volvo all withdrew their financial guidance due to the uncertainty. Rivian wasted no time preparing for the changes.
According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, Rivian has been stockpiling lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells from Gotion High-Tech since last year. The battery cells are used in Rivian’s Commercial Van, initially used by Rivian and now open to other businesses.
Sources familiar with the matter said Rivian covered the upfront costs to stockpile inventory for later use. China’s Gotion paid for and built a separate reserve in the US.
The sources also said that Rivian is working with Samsung SDI to move a significant portion of its battery supply from Korea to the US. Battery cells from Samsung are used in Rivian’s R1S electric SUV and R1T pickup. All three vehicles are built at Rivian’s manufacturing plant in Normal, IL.
The move is to ensure Rivian has enough supply while minimizing potential higher prices and other complications from the tariffs.
As it prepares to launch its smaller, more affordable R2, sources said Rivian is looking to secure similar deals for batteries and raw materials in the future. Rivian has reportedly already signed its first agreement, but no other details were offered.
The upcoming R2 will use cells from LG Energy Solution. Although they will initially come from Korea, LG will produce the next-gen batteries in Arizona.
Electrek’s Take
Although Trump eased some of the impacts on imported vehicles on Wednesday, many tariffs remain in place and are already causing havoc in the industry.
Almost every major automaker has withdrawn earnings guidance due to the expected impacts. Like Rivian, others are taking countermeasures, including boosting US inventory in preparation. However, how long can this last?
Trump claims that the “Golden Age of America” is here, but it looks to be the complete opposite. The tariffs will only put the US further behind as China and others emerge as global leaders in tech.
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Tesla plans to deploy a public charging network for its Tesla Semi truck, starting with 46 stations in 2027, according to a new presentation.
At a new presentation at the ACT Expo this week, Tesla’s head of the Semi program, Dan Priestley, revealed several new details about the long-awaited electric semi-truck.
During the presentation, Priesley claimed that Tesla Semi trucks have already cumulatively traveled 7.9 million miles (12.7 million km).
He didn’t disclose how many trucks contributed to this total mileage, but he did add that “more than 26 Tesla Semi trucks” have each traveled over 100,000 miles.”
These numbers have been updated from a previous presentation in September 2024, when Priestley said the Tesla Semi fleet had traveled 7.5 million miles and that a single truck had traveled 250,000 miles (400,000 km) over the last 1.5 years.
Tesla also confirmed that the truck is going to be equipped with a 25 kW Power Take Off (PTO) at the back to power external systems, like a refrigerated trailer, for example (via Jake Guerra on LinkedIn):
Priestley also revealed a few more details about Tesla’s planned expansion of its charging network for the Tesla Semi.
The company currently operates the Supercharger network. It is the most extensive EV fast-charging network in North America, but it is geared toward passenger electric vehicles and not practical for bigger commercial vehicles, like Tesla Semi.
Tesla has already deployed Megachargers, its charging station for electric semi trucks, at its own installations and those of a few customer-partners who have been testing the Tesla Semi, but now it plans to deploy public charging stations to enable long-haul trucking with the electric truck.
Priestley said that Tesla is now aiming to deploy 46 Megacharging stations as part of its public charging network by early 2027.
It is not clear whether the locations on the map accurately represent the plans, but it appears likely based on previously reported Megacharger information.
The presentation follows an update released by Tesla this week about the Tesla Semi factory in Nevada.
The automaker aims to start volume production of the truck in 2026.
Tesla Semi was first supposed to enter production in 2019, but it has been significantly delayed as Tesla tried to deliver on the promise of range and capacity.
It appears that the automaker may be able to deliver on those, but at a significantly higher price than previously announced, as we recently reported.
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Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), already the first airport in the US to be fully powered by a microgrid, is expanding its solar field with utility Duquesne Light Company (DLC) and solar owner and operator IMG Energy Solutions.
The new solar project will add more than 11,216 panels to the airport’s existing solar array, generating an additional 4.7 megawatts MW) of renewable energy. That’s enough to cut around 5 million pounds of carbon emissions annually. It’s DLC’s first-ever power purchase agreement, and clean energy will go to the regional grid to help power homes and businesses in Pittsburgh.
This expansion will sit on 12 acres of land that used to be a landfill, adjacent to Pittsburgh Airport’s eight-acre solar array, which hosts nearly 10,000 panels. This new and old infrastructure, just off the airport exit from I-376, supports the airport’s 23-MW solar and natural gas microgrid, launched in 2021.
Allegheny County executive Sara Innamorato called the project a “fantastic step” toward a more sustainable future for the region. PIT also has plans to make sustainable aviation fuel onsite.
DLC will use 100% of this project’s energy and Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to support its default service customers.
“We’re maximizing the use of airport assets for the betterment of the region – from air service to real estate development to energy innovation,” said PIT CEO Christina Cassotis. “And there’s more to come.”
The new solar field is expected to come online by 2027. So if you’re flying into Pittsburgh in a couple of years, you might spot it from your window seat.
Read more: Solar adds more new capacity to the US grid in 2024 than any energy source in 20 years
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