BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETP lists today on the LSE and is now available to UK retail investors, with the firm writing that this offers them exposure to bitcoin without the complexities of trading and holding the cryptocurrency directly.
The securities of the ETP are 100 per cent physically backed by bitcoin held directly through Coinbase.
The firm writes that as investor demand for cryptocurrency grows in the UK, with a 12 per cent annualised growth rate since 2022, the iShares Bitcoin ETP offers the ability to trade in bitcoin exposure on the London stock exchange through traditional trading accounts. Investing in bitcoin via an ETP also transfers the responsibility of storing the underlying bitcoin from the individual holder to the ETP issuer.
BlackRock writes that the next wave of crypto investors in the UK research predicts a 21 per cent rise in UK adults investing in crypto for the first time over the next 12 months, with the UK ranking third in crypto investment growth across Europe.
“The iShares Bitcoin ETP leverages a multi-year integration of technology between Coinbase and BlackRock. Coinbase’s custody system combines physical security, multiparty computation, and strict process controls to secure private keys and client assets. For the iShares Bitcoin ETP, Coinbase transfers bitcoin in the trading wallet into segregated, offline, cold storage wallets by the end of each day.”
“As the UK crypto investor base is projected to approach four million over the next year, today’s listing of ETPs like iShares Bitcoin ETP (IB1T) unlock a securer gateway to digital assets through traditional investment platforms,” says Jane Sloan, EMEA Head of Global Product Solutions at BlackRock. “Built on institutional-grade infrastructure, IB1T enables UK investors to gain exposure to bitcoin with the confidence of robust custody and regulatory oversight.”
The IB1T ETP has a TER of 15 bps per annum including a temporary and partial TER waiver from launch up to and including 31 December 2025. From and including 1 January 2026 onwards, the TER will be 25bps per annum.
The BlackRock Investment Institute (BII) finds that for investors with suitable governance and the ability to tolerate the large short-term drawdowns that can be associated with bitcoin, an allocation of up to 1-2 per cent to bitcoin is a reasonable range in multi-asset portfolios.
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