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U.Today - It is a big call, but not one without precedent. Strategy CEO Michael Saylor has predicted that BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) will become the largest ETF in the world within the next 10 years. That is a bold chart to draw in a market still led by S&P 500 giants - but then again, this is Michael Saylor.
Right now, the leaderboard is a familiar lineup: Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF (VOO) sits at the top, with over $573 billion in assets under management. SPY and IVV round out the trio, each comfortably over $500 billion. IBIT, on the other hand, is just getting started - but what it lacks in scale, it is making up for in momentum.
As of today, BlackRock holds over 582,000 BTC through IBIT, valued at more than $54.2 billion. That puts it just below the 35th largest ETF by AUM, yet it is already posting daily trading volumes north of 45 million shares.
Still, that kind of spike in activity does not go unnoticed - especially when you are talking about an asset class that was not even on most institutional radar a few years ago.
This is not Saylor’s first outsized forecast on Bitcoin. He has previously suggested the asset could eventually reach a valuation of $13 million per coin. Maybe it is too optimistic, but his track record of betting early and doubling down means predictions like this tend to land with more weight than most.
What does this say about where the ETF space is heading? If a spot Bitcoin fund backed by BlackRock can outgrow traditional equity benchmarks, that is a shift with implications far beyond crypto. Whether IBIT can leapfrog the legacy giants remains to be seen, however.