Now it's official: BlackRock has bought Bitcoin futures from CME.
The company itself revealed this in a recent filing with the SEC, which explicitly states that they bought 37 CME BITCOIN FUT MAR21 XCME 20210326 contracts, expiring on March 26, 2021.
Since each contract is equivalent to 5 BTC, in total they have invested an amount comparable to 185 bitcoins, which were worth around $ 9.8 million when they expired.
According to anonymous sources familiar with the operation, the investment would have been about $ 6.5 million, or an average price of about $ 35,000 per Bitcoin. From this, it could be deduced that the investment could have been made between the end of January and the beginning of February 2021, that is, approximately at the same time as Tesla bought $ 1.5 billion in Bitcoin.
A few days after the Tesla reveal, BlackRock's own CIO, Rick rieder, also revealed that the company had entered this market, albeit with a small position.
Blackrock has invested 0.03% in bitcoin futures
It should be noted that according to the data from January 31, investment in bitcoin futures would constitute only 0.03% of the company's Global Allocation Fund, which is a very small part, as anticipated by the CIO in mid-February.
There is no news of new purchases of crypto derivatives by the company, but given the gains it has made in such a short time, it would be reasonable to expect that it would have continued to invest in this sector.
It is worth remembering that BlackRock is the largest investment company in the world, with total assets under management of almost $ 8 billion, or eight times the total market capitalization of bitcoin.
In light of these figures, it is possible to imagine that, if they decide to start getting really 'serious' in this area, they could become one of the biggest players in the cryptocurrency market, although they would probably continue to use mainly derivatives products, and not physical bitcoin directly.
What is certain is that many large institutional players in traditional global finance are increasingly entering the cryptocurrency market, likely attracted by returns that are hard to come by in other markets right now.
