In no surprise given the lame crypto price action in the first quarter of 2025, BlackRock (BLK) posted a sizable slump in net inflows into its spot bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) ETFs.
In all, investors put $3 billion into BlackRock’s digital asset-focused ETFs in the first three months of the year, according to the company’s first quarter earning report. That’s an 83% drop from what was a big inflow number in the fourth quarter as prices and sentiment shot higher alongside the Trump election victory.
Taken alone, the first quarter number still signals strong demand for crypto-linked funds, even as prices deteriorated.
That $3 billion represents 2.8% of the total inflows into BlackRock’s mammoth iShares ETFs in the first quarter, which also include active, core equity, and strategic funds, among smaller categories. BlackRock at quarter’s end managed roughly $50.3 billion in digital assets, or about 0.5% of its total assets of more than $10 trillion.
Digital asset ETFs accounted for $34 million in base fees, or less than 1% of the company’s long-term revenue.
The decline in bitcoin and ether ETF inflows last quarter came alongside a 70% quarterly fall in iShares’ overall inflows to $84 billion from $281 million as global markets attempted to navigate the changing macroeconomic environment under President Trump.