BlackRock has named its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) exchange-traded fund (ETF) as one of the top three investment themes for 2025, a striking move given the importance of Bitcoin. slide this year.
The company placed IBIT alongside two more traditional offerings: the iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) and the iShares Top 20 US Stocks ETF (TOPT).
Bitcoin has fallen more than 4% since the start of the year, the first decline in three years, and the IBIT has reflected this performance. Despite this, the ETF has attracted strong investor interest. IBIT ranks sixth among all ETFs by 2025, bringing in more than $25 billion since January.
“It’s easy to dismiss this as simply BlackRock promoting its most profitable product,” said Nate Geraci, president of ETF Store. “But I see it more as the company doubling down on its belief that bitcoin has a place in diversified portfolios.”
Geraci noted that BlackRock has other ETFs, like the gold-focused IAU, that outperform IBIT and charge higher fees. Yet the company is highlighting a product that has underperformed in 2025, a rare development in an industry that typically highlights its best-performing funds.
“If the goal was purely to generate revenue, BlackRock would have no shortage of ETFs with significantly higher fees that it could emphasize instead,” he said. “Asset managers are generally not in the business of highlighting underperforming products, especially when they have a wide range of outperforming alternatives that they could highlight.”
The inclusion of IBIT as a flagship theme for 2025 signals a long-term bet on the crypto asset by the world’s largest asset manager. For investors who still view crypto as speculative or fringe, BlackRock’s positioning of bitcoin alongside cash and stocks could change that perception.
