---
title: 'BlackRock Is Taking Over Crypto'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=5IbPJ52qwKU'
video_id: '5IbPJ52qwKU'
date: 2026-08-04
duration_sec: 809
---

# BlackRock Is Taking Over Crypto

> Source: [BlackRock Is Taking Over Crypto](https://youtube.com/watch?v=5IbPJ52qwKU)

## Summary

The video examines BlackRock's expanding influence in the cryptocurrency market, from its dominant Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs to its tokenized treasury fund and plans to tokenize its entire iShares franchise. It weighs the benefits of institutional adoption against the centralization risks that contradict crypto's original ethos.

### Key Points

- **Bitcoin's Current Downturn** [00:00] — Bitcoin has slipped below $60K, ETFs are experiencing significant outflows, and retail interest has cratered to multi-year lows. Despite this, institutional holders are not selling, with holdings near all-time highs.
- **BlackRock's ETF Dominance** [01:43] — BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is the largest spot Bitcoin ETF, holding over 765,000 BTC and $47.4 billion in net assets, representing about 61% of the entire Bitcoin ETF sector and 74% of daily trading volume.
- **ETFs as a Gateway** [02:56] — BlackRock manages over $130 billion in crypto-related products. 75% of IBIT investors were new to BlackRock, and the ETF serves as a front door to their broader ecosystem, leading to purchases of S&P 500, gold, and AI funds.
- **Staked Ethereum ETF** [04:03] — BlackRock launched a staked Ethereum ETF (ETHB) that stakes ETH and takes an 18% cut of rewards. Morgan Stanley filed a competing product with only a 5% fee, potentially forcing BlackRock to lower its fee.
- **Bitcoin Premium Income ETF** [04:44] — BlackRock launched BitA, a covered call ETF that writes call options on 25-35% of its IBIT holdings monthly, targeting a 15-25% annual yield and charging a 0.65% fee. This monetizes volatility on top of holding Bitcoin.
- **Tokenized Treasury Fund** [06:07] — BlackRock's tokenized treasury fund (BUIDL) holds cash, US treasuries, and repurchase agreements. It is one of the largest tokenized RWA funds, live on nine blockchains, and used as collateral in DeFi and on exchanges.
- **Tokenization of Everything** [07:43] — Larry Fink aims to tokenize every stock, bond, and fund. BlackRock plans to tokenize its $4 trillion iShares franchise, while the DTCC pilot with over 50 firms targets tokenizing Russell 1000 equities, ETFs, and treasuries.
- **Benefits of Institutional Adoption** [10:18] — Tokenization offers near-instant settlement, 24/7 markets, and fractional ownership. Tokenized treasuries provide risk-free yield on-chain. BlackRock's digital asset products generated $42 million in revenue in a quarter, and BUIDL paid over $100 million in dividends.
- **Centralization Concerns** [11:40] — In the DTCC model, the blockchain is not the master record; the DTCC keeps the golden record on its centralized ledger. BUIDL is permissioned, requiring KYC, and the issuer can freeze assets. Critics argue this is a faster shared database with override keys, contradicting crypto's trustless ideals.

### Conclusion

BlackRock's integration into crypto brings legitimacy and efficiency but also centralization, challenging the decentralized ethos of the technology. The future of crypto may hinge on whether the benefits of institutional adoption outweigh the loss of control.

## Transcript

Being a Bitcoin holder isn't much fun these  days. BTC has slipped below 60K. The ETFs are   bleeding like a stuck pig. And Michael Sailor is  in the doghouse after Strategy sold some coins,  
albeit a negligible amount. Yep, it feels like the  Bitcoin bulls are 4-nil down in the second half   with the Bears constantly threatening to score  again. But not everyone is wallowing in gloom.  
Larry Frink, the man who runs the largest  asset manager on Earth, is undaunted. His   firm Black Rockck controls the biggest Bitcoin  and Ethereum ETFs on the planet, is skimming   a cut of your staking rewards, and tokenizing  the financial system itself. The institutional  
takeover of crypto is in full swing. So, is this  the validation crypto spent a decade waiting for,   or the exact centralization it was invented to  escape? To find out, I'm going to break down how  
Black Rockck conquered the ETF market, exposed the  yield machine it's built on top of your assets,   and follow the rails all the way to the endgame.  My name is Guy, and you're watching the Coin   Bureau. Yes, Bitcoin is down nearly 32% year  to date. Meanwhile, retail search volume has  
cratered to multi-year lows, falling below levels  we saw in the depths of the last bare market. So,   you'd assume, with everyone capitulating, that the  institutions were heading for the exits, too. But  
you'd be wrong. Institutional Bitcoin holders  are still sitting on roughly 1.25 million BTC,   within 8% of their all-time high. They are not  selling. And Black Rockck, the biggest of them  
all, managing some $14 trillion in total assets,  hasn't slowed down, which brings us straight to   the foundation of the whole operation, the ETF  empire. Black Rockck's iShares Bitcoin Trust,  
ticker IBIT, is the largest spot Bitcoin ETF in  the world. And as of late June, it holds around   47.4 billion in net assets and over 765,000  BTC. That's roughly 61% of the entire Bitcoin  
ETF sector wrapped up in one single product.  Indeed, IBIT accounts for nearly 74% of all   spot Bitcoin ETF daily trading volume. Analysts  call this a winner takemost dynamic and BlackRock  
is that winner. And this is despite the fact that  retail is leaving in droves with the ETFs recently   posting their longest ever outflow streak. 13  consecutive days from the 15th of May to the  
3rd of June with IBIT alone bleeding roughly $3.3  billion. For the first time since these products   launched in January 2024, the yearly flows have  flipped negative. But while you might assume that  
Black Rockck are asking themselves why they ever  touched crypto in the first place, consider this.   The company now manages over 130 billion across  all its cryptoreated products. And 75% of IBIT  
investors had never owned a single Black Rockck  ETF before. Once they walk through that door, they   buy the S&P 500 fund, the gold fund, the AI funds.  that shiny new Bitcoin ETF was just the front door  
to their wider ecosystem. Now, if you're having  trouble keeping up with all these developments   across crypto, stocks, AI, commodities,  and all those other markets, then fear not,   because we've made it a lot easier. Right here  on YouTube, you can now access the new Coinbureau  
Club Light Plan. For just $10 a month, you'll get  daily market updates across both crypto and tradi.   Our teams read on the best opportunities and  curated updates with only the bits that actually  
matter. So just tap the join button below this  video to get started. Now, Bitcoin may have been   a nice little earner for Black Rockck, but it  was in fact just a gateway drug. In March 2026,  
Black Rockck launched a staked Ethereum ETF,  ticker ETHB, that stakes the ETH it holds for   you and takes a pretty eyewatering 18% cut of  the rewards. But they don't have it all their  
own way as Morgan Stanley has since filed a  competing product proposing to keep just 5%   which analysts say could eventually force Black  Rockck's hand. Nevertheless, as things stand,  
the most powerful asset manager on Earth is taking  nearly a fifth of the yield your assets generate   with ETHB making its first cash distribution  on the 9th of June. A modest $351,669.
proof the machine is now running inside a  regulated rapper. And then in June they went   further. They launched Bit A, the Isshares Bitcoin  premium income ETF. This one is a covered call  
product. And for those unfamiliar, that just means  it sells other people's right to buy Bitcoin at a   fixed price and pockets the premium. It writes  call options on 25 to 35% of its IBIT holdings  
every month. targets a 15 to 25% annual yield and  charges a 0.65% fee on top. So, Black Rockck has   built a pretty impressive stack of products.  IBIT charges you just to hold Bitcoin. Then,  
Bit A sells the upside of that volatility, while  ETHB skims a cut of Ethereum's native yield. They   are now monetizing the yield your assets generate  at every single layer of the cake. Jay Jacobs,  
Black Rockck's US head of equity ETFs, openly  admitted that when you see IBIT outflows, it could   just be someone selling IBIT and buying bit A. In  other words, when you think capital is leaving,  
it might just be getting upgraded into a more fee  hungry product without ever leaving BlackRock's   machine. But the ETFs and the yield products  are still just the surface. Biddrock's tokenized  
treasury fund launched in 2024 holds cash, US  treasury bills and repurchase agreements and keeps   a stable dollar value. It's now one of the largest  tokenized realorld asset funds on the planet in a  
close race with rivals like circles USYC sitting  somewhere between 2.5 and $2.85 billion. And it's   not stuck on one chain either. It's live across  nine blockchains including Ethereum, Salana,  
Polygon, Avalanche, Arbitum, and Bass. Black  Rockck is positioning itself to be everywhere in   crypto simultaneously. But even more intriguingly,  Bidd is actively being plugged in as collateral  
across DeFi. It backs Athena's dollar product. It  underpins Onondo Finance's tokenized treasuries   which appear in over 30 D5 protocols and it's  accepted as margin collateral on platforms  
including Binance, Crypto.com and Derivet. And in  February 2026, BlackRock integrated Biddis swap X.   So institutions can swap a Black Rockck Treasury  token straight for USDC on a decentralized  
exchange. The stable coin you hold, the lending  protocol you use might already be backed by a   Black Rockck product under the hood. This is  traditional finance putting itself directly on  
chain and turning crypto into its own settlement  layer. And the direction of travel here should be   pretty clear because Bidd was always a proof of  concept. The real prize is the entire financial  
system. And Larry Frink has been explicit  about this. In his own words, every stock,   every bond, every fund eventually tokenized. He's  compared this moment to the internet in 1996,  
and he's now moving to tokenize Black Rockck's  $4 trillion Eyesshares franchise. For scale,   the total tokenized real world asset market right  now sits at around $32 billion. And now, Black  
Rockck alone is preparing to bring $4 trillion on  chain. But it's not alone. There's a DTCC pilot   running with over 50 firms including JP Morgan  and Goldman Sachs to put Russell 1000 equities,  
major ETFs, and US treasuries onto blockchain  rails. The SEC issued a no action letter back in   December 2025 authorizing a three-year pilot with  limited production trades targeted for July 2026  
and a full commercial launch planned for October  2026. And remember, the DTCC custodies over $114   trillion in securities. Even 1% of that moving  on chain is 1.14 trillion in tokenized assets.  
There's no getting away from it. Crypto's rails  are being rebuilt by Wall Street for Wall Street.   Right. If you're looking to trade these latest  market moves, whether that's crypto or traditional  
assets like gold and commodities, then BitGet is  definitely worth a look. They've just rolled out   their Tradfy trading platform, which lets you  trade assets like gold and other commodities   directly using USDT. So, you don't need to jump  between platforms. You also get deep liquidity,  
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if you complete your first net deposit of $5,000  and place your first trade, you'll unlock a VIP3   trial. Now, that includes up to 38% fee discounts,  exclusive VIP perks, and free token airdrops. So,  
scan the QR code, check the link below,  and see what BitGet has to offer. Now,   that said, it's not all bad. Having BlackRock  and the DTCC building on the blockchain is the  
ultimate stamp of approval that this technology  is real financial infrastructure and not just a   casino. Then there's the efficiency argument.  Tokenization promises near instant settlement,   247 markets, and fractional ownership of assets  that were previously inaccessible to ordinary  
people. With the 10-year Treasury yielding  around 4.5%, tokenized treasuries let stable   coin holders earn near risk-free yield on chain  that simply didn't exist before. And you can't  
exactly argue with the numbers either. Black  Rockck's digital asset products generated $42   million in revenue in a single quarter, and Bidd  has paid out over $100 million in dividends since  
inception. Black Rockck's own COO, Rob Goldstein,  frames tokenization as a complimentary technology,   a bridge between the old system and the new, not  a hostile takeover. Meanwhile, Noriel Rabini,  
a man who once called crypto a scam, is preparing  to launch his own blockchain product, USAFI,   targeting Q3 2026 under Dubai's regulatory  framework, signaling that even some of crypto's  
most vocal critics are moving onto the rails  they once dismissed. But before you say, "Shut   up and take my money," consider the trade-offs.  In the DTCC model, the blockchain isn't the master  
record. The DTCC keeps the so-called golden record  on its own centralized ledger, and the tokens are   merely mirrored copies. Critics call this a  faster shared database with override keys. The  
exact opposite of an immutable trustless system.  Meanwhile, Bidd is permissioned. You need to be a   qualified purchaser. You need KYC and the issuer  can freeze your assets, blacklist your wallet  
and restrict your transfers through the smart  contract. Bickens CEO Edwin Mata put it perfectly   when he said the sheer regulatory barrier  creates a moat that favors massive incumbents  
like BlackRock but locking smaller decentralized  innovators out entirely. Even Vitalin has flagged   the danger of custody concentration, warning about  a handful of giants controlling a huge share of  
the ETH held in US ETFs. Crypto was invented to  prevent anyone from freezing your money or sitting   between you and your assets. But the version Wall  Street is building relies on a gatekeeper who  
controls the master copy and holds the override  keys. The old system is adapting, offering   convenience, which most people absolutely love,  in exchange for control, which many simply don't  
care enough about. The fox is making his case to  be let into the hen house. Can anyone keep him   out for much longer? Right, that's your lot for  today. Let me know in the comments what your take  
is. Should we be keeping Black Rock and Co at arms  length, or is it already too late to stop them?   Thank you for watching. Check out our video on how  the spot Bitcoin ETFs became the Trojan horse that   started all of this. Don't stop being gorgeous and  I'll see you again soon. This is Guy signing off.