The Most Successful ETF Launch in History

Blackrock executives Robbie Mitchnick and Jay Jacobs share insights into their new spot bitcoin ETF

Ric Edelman: It's Friday, April 26th. On today's show, is technology really going to put you out of work? Plus, a conversation about the most successful ETF launch in history, IBIT, BlackRock's new spot bitcoin ETF. 

The question of whether technology is really going to put you out of work or not is certainly on everyone's mind, especially if you're in a field that involves mostly data or information. Think about that. If your job involves mostly paperwork, creating documents, storing documents, distributing documents, then AI can do it faster, cheaper, more accurately than you can. 

And if you're in a physically repetitive job, a robot can do what you do faster, cheaper, and better than you can. And if neither of those statements is true, neither AI nor robots are faster, cheaper, or better than you, Then the fear is certainly that they soon will be, and that's at the heart of the question. 

Over the next five or ten years, will technology put you out of work? Well, here's where we stand right now. Only 40% of all workers in the US are in occupations that existed prior to 1940. That's according to a new study by MIT. For example, engineers of computer applications. That job showed up in 1970. Circuit layout designers. They emerged in 1990. Solar photovoltaic electrician. That job debuted only six years ago. And it's not just technology that creates new jobs. It's also consumer demand. Tattooers became a thing in 1950. Hypnotherapists showed up in 1980. Conference planners in 1990, and fingernail technicians, they started in 2000. What the hell is a fingernail technician? Now, not only have most jobs been invented since World War II, most of those jobs are a lot better than the jobs we had before World War II.  

Before the war, we were mostly an agricultural society. The Industrial Revolution was taking hold, and neither of those categories offered jobs that we would today call highly desirable. Working on a factory floor? Toiling in a field? For every four jobs that have been invented since World War II, three of them are white collar jobs. High end, specialized, professional work. 

Education has become more important than ever, so you can do these jobs. We used to have elevator operators and typesetters. Not anymore. But today we still have a lot of shipping and receiving clerks. Buyers, civil engineers, because of technology, we have fewer cabinet makers and machinists.  

So what's AI gonna do about all this? At MIT, researchers say the impact of AI on your job depends on where you are in the organization. At a manufacturing company, there might be fewer machinists, but more systems analysts. There's also the consumer impact. Changing consumer demand. And a big part of that is because of changing demographics. We have more and more older people, and we're making fewer and fewer babies. You don't need AI to tell you that healthcare is going to be a growing industry, and the need for elementary school teachers will shrink.  

And while all this is going on, guess what's happening with today's high school graduates? They're saying no to college and yes to trade schools. Enrollment in vocational training programs rose 16% last year. It's now at the highest level since they started tracking the data six years ago. These kids are not crazy. They're super smart. They know that the median pay for new construction hires is $48,000 a year. 

Compare that to the median pay for a first-year job in professional services. We're talking accountants and IT maintenance workers. They're getting an average of only $39,000 a year, and not only are the kids going to trade schools earning more, they're getting jobs faster because they don't need four to six years to graduate like college kids do, and they're not spending 100 grand or 200 grand to get their training. A lot of cases, they get it in a year or two, and their employers are paying them to get the training. Because there's so much demand for them. So they get more pay, they get it faster, they save a hundred grand, and they don't end up with any student loan debt. These kids are smart. They get it.  

But you know what one of the biggest obstacles is that these kids face? Their parents. 80 % of students in vocational schools say their parents wanted them to go to college instead. Because that's what the parents did. So they want their kids to do it too. Mom and dad have not come to grips with the fact that the world is very different today than it was when they went to college. 

AI might eliminate a lot of jobs, but it's clear that it's going to create a lot of jobs as well. So you have three choices. And if you're a financial advisor, make sure your clients choose among these three choices. Number one, generate enough wealth quick. So you don't need an income from a job. So, who cares if you lose your job to AI or robotics, got enough income, you got enough wealth. You won't care. Number two, have a career that's immune from technological innovation and changing consumer demographic shifts. Good luck with that. Number three, prepare yourself to get trained in a new field, maybe even one that doesn't yet exist. When we saw the Wright brothers flying their plane around, it was time to start thinking about a career in air traffic control, even though that didn't exist yet. 

So you need to think about the future. Make sure you and your kids are going to be economically viable in a world where commerce is dominated by AI and robotics. Oh, and by the way, that generating wealth thing, that's probably the best path.  

Coming up next, a conversation about the most successful ETF launch in history with BlackRock's executives, Robbie Mitchnick & Jay Jacobs. They share insights into their new spot bitcoin ETF.  

Stay with us for more here on The Truth About Your Future. 

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Ric Edelman: You're listening to The Truth about Your Future. You know, the big news this year, both in the financial markets and in the crypto markets, has been the launch of the spot bitcoin ETFs. We've been talking about it a lot on the show, and for all the obvious reasons, this has been in the making for literally 10 years in the crypto community. 

The SEC finally said yes to 10 sponsors who asked for permission to bring these spot bitcoin ETFs to the market. And these ETFs have smashed all records, not just in the crypto community. Forget about that. I'm talking about the ETF world and talking about mainstream Wall Street. The investment community has been astonished and a happy sense as to how popular these ETFs have become and the massive inflows of assets they've enjoyed since their launch on January 10th. 

And to help us talk about all this and what it means for you, what's next in the world of ETFs in the world of crypto, with Bitcoin itself – I'm really happy to bring him on to the program Robbie Mitchnick, he's the Head of Digital Assets for BlackRock, joined by Jay Jacobs, who is the US Head of Thematics and Active Equity ETFs for BlackRock. Gentlemen, welcome to the show. Great to have you back and congratulations on the incredible success of the iShares Bitcoin Trust, the symbol IBIT. Of the 10 ETFs that all launched on the first day, IBIT has taken off like a rocket ship far ahead of anybody else. Your asset flows, I gotta believe, even surprised you guys – Jay, is that true? 

Jay Jacobs: I think we saw tremendous interest in this product for years leading up to launch. You know fundamentally this is an access story that investors have time and again chosen ETFs as their vehicle of choice to get exposure to diversified equity indexes, diversified bond indexes, active strategies, and now of course, Bitcoin. So, with IBIT coming out, in a lot of ways, it just facilitates easy access for millions of investors around the world to get exposure to Bitcoin in their portfolios, alongside those stocks and stock and bond exposures they've had for years.  

Ric Edelman: And I don't think anybody is surprised that of the 10 ETF products that have come on to the marketplace that yours, that Blackrock’s fund, symbol is IBIT. It's listed as an iShares fund. iShares, of course, created by, owned by Blackrock. The largest ETF sponsor in the world. I think you've got, what 500 ETFs in the market at this point of Blackrock, the world's largest money manager? So I'm not surprised at all that with Blackrock’s muscle, brand name recognition, the incredible size of assets that you manage, that investors are naturally turning to Blackrock more than anybody else for access to this new asset class. What does all this mean though? I mean, great. You know, it's been popular. There's been people in the starting gate for years wanting to invest in this. Now they've been able to do it. But at the end of the day, what does it really mean, Jay, for investors?  

Jay Jacobs: Well, look, I think a lot of these early assets we've seen coming into IBIT are people who already have made the decision around exposure to Bitcoin. These are people that maybe had exposure through other vehicles or were getting exposure directly who now see the ETF as their way of getting access more efficiently. I think what it means for the long term, though, is reaching new investors who previously really had no means of getting exposure to Bitcoin. So, this is really just starting out, more conversations with advisors, more conversations with institutions, more contact with end investors around the potential utility Bitcoin can add to portfolios. So, this is in a lot of ways, kind of the starting gate for a new group of investors to consider this asset. 

Ric Edelman: Robby, I want to bring you in on this conversation because you're actually heading the digital assets division for Blackrock. You've been in the digital assets space for quite a while. Bitcoin, of course, has been around since 2009. I want you to broaden the question for us. I mean, okay, it's exciting that the ETFs are here, but Bitcoin's been here for 15 years. So what's the big deal? You know, at the end of the day, why should investors who have been interested in buying Bitcoin, why should they choose this new ETF over buying Bitcoin directly?  

Robbie Mitchnick: Yeah, well Ric, first, thanks for having both of us on, and it's great to see you again. I think the significance of this moment is that for the first time, mainstream investor access to Bitcoin has become unlocked. That it is now something that exists from an infrastructure and access perspective within the traditional finance ecosystem across all manner of investor archetypes, not just those who were kind of crypto curious and crypto forward and willing to take the steps to open up accounts at these novel entities that were crypto exchanges or other crypto firms that enabled access, that obviously appealed to lots of investors, lots of individual investors in particular to the tune of a couple hundred million who've done so over the last decade or so. But still there are a lot of frictions for many investors in so doing in terms of having to figure out and evaluate new providers, go through the onboarding process there, figure out trading custody, what the right custody security model is, how to deal with it from a tax perspective, and all manner of other frictions that in particular for large institutions and for wealth advisory platform and advisors simply weren't feasible. And so the ETF is a game changer from that perspective.  

Ric Edelman: Yeah, I think that that's a really valid point. I've been in this space for over a decade, as you know, and I've played that game. I got to admit, even for someone like me, who was pretty good at investment management and pretty experienced at it, the crypto conversation has been a little scary. I have to admit, I mean, I remember when I first, back in 2012, decided I wanted to own some Bitcoin – and exactly you just said, I had to pick a crypto exchange to go buy it at, and all of the crypto exchanges were new companies. They were crypto native. They weren't emanating from Wall Street, you know Blackrock wasn't offering anything back then to ordinary investors. And you couldn't get this at Schwab or TD Ameritrade or Vanguard or Merrill Lynch. I mean, I had to go to one of these brand X organizations really didn't know anything about them. Were they even located in the United States? Their websites were incredibly vague. And then after opening an online account, they said, okay, now we need to link the crypto account you just created with your bank account. You need to give us your bank account information so we can arrange for sending money from your bank account into your crypto account. I'm like, well, that's really scary having to connect my bank account to this. I actually opened a new bank account with a minimum deposit. So if anything went wrong, they wouldn't have access to my real bank account. And then when I made the transfer, I was like, oh my goodness, I hope I did it right. And if the transfer goes through, and then after I did that and I bought the Bitcoin, I was like, well now I've got a private key to deal with. What happens if I lose it? There's no help button. There's no do over, there's no customer service desk. 

I mean, it was a really daunting kind of an issue. And I can see that an ordinary investor is going to say, forget it. I'm not going to go through all of this. If I do everything right, and then if Bitcoin rises, I win. But if anything goes wrong in that process. I lose. There weren't too many Americans who were willing to go through all that process, and that's why I think so many sat on the sidelines for the past 15 years. No? 

Robbie Mitchnick: I think that's exactly right, Ric, and the proof is in the pudding. Right? There were plenty who said, but you can get access already. So what's the big deal? And there were others who I think correctly hypothesized as you did that there would be a huge unlock here that actually there were major frictions that were being unblocked. And when you look at it, ETFs historically, the prior fastest time to $10 billion in assets was right around two years. And that record stood for multiple decades. IBIT hit $10 billion in assets in seven weeks. And so, if there was any question that this format was resonating with investors, I think the answer is that it's a pretty resounding yes. 

Ric Edelman: And it's pretty easy to understand why ETFs are popular. They, for all the right reasons, they are incredibly inexpensive. They have very low account minimums. They're highly transparent. They're highly liquid. And everybody's familiar with them. It's routine for investors to own them, and it's routine for investment advisors to recommend them. It's a familiar product, and you get it from your existing financial advisor, from the household brand names that you know so well, including, not least of which, of course, is Blackrock itself, the world's largest ETF provider. So, yeah, I think that it makes an awful lot of sense. But okay, that makes the argument for buying Bitcoin via one of these ETFs, as opposed to buying Bitcoin directly. The convenience factor, the perceived safety factor. At least safety in terms of knowing who your custodian or knowing who your fund provider is, knowing that you can get it in your ordinary brokerage account. We're not improving the safety of Bitcoin itself, but you're one of 10, Jay, and so why should somebody choose Blackrock’s spot bitcoin ETF? Why should they choose IBIT over any of the other nine? Let's face it, brand name only goes so far. So there's got to be something more to it that is causing so many people to buy IBIT. 

Jay Jacobs: Little bit of context – we run 1400 ETFs around the world, over $3 trillion in assets, and you can imagine at that scale, so much effort has gone into building out the technology to manage ETFs like this, to build out the infrastructure and security around managing so many ETFs. And so while that might sound relatively easy, that's a very intensive process of building technology and building processes to make sure that we can handle Bitcoin in the way that we handle other assets. So, long story short, it's about the institutional grade technology. It's about our choice of service providers working with companies like Coinbase, which is the largest digital asset custodian around the world. 

Ric Edelman: The reaction has been kind of obvious from a flow perspective. You know, we've seen Robbie, as you mentioned, massive flows in just the first couple of months that these ETFs have been available. But aside from the flows themselves, what is it you're seeing and hearing from the investors directly? And we've got three categories of folks I want you to speak to, Robbie, the retail investors who are investing their own money for their own purposes, the financial advisors who are serving them, and then separately the institutional investors. Talk about each of those three one at a time. Robbie, start with you.  

Robbie Mitchnick: Sure. I think that's a great way of categorizing the various buckets, Ric. And if we think about those three engines or channels for ETF investors, the first being direct or an investor. Traction has been firing on all cylinders. From the get go, you saw enormous interest there. And that's been from small dollar investors to ultra high net worth. But the second and third are really just in the very early stages, right? Think about wealth advisory platforms, their process to add new ETFs to their lineup and to have advisors be able to place their clients in them, tends to be a very long process. The RIA channel, that's the fastest for sure. And so we've seen a lot of interest from the RIA channel and from advisors in that space. But we think about the wire houses and independent broker dealers that, there's a much longer process there, private banks. So those are conversations that are ongoing. 

And many of our clients and partners in that space are expediting their processes in light of the enormous client interest that they have. But that still takes multiple months to go through those diligence processes. So that's ongoing. And then for institutional, what this has done is really reinvigorated the discussion around what's the role of Bitcoin in a portfolio? What should our allocation be? There's a long research, diligence, education cycle associated with that. But we're seeing those conversations start to happen. When you think about it today, Bitcoin at about a trillion and a half-ish of market cap – crypto on the whole around $3 trillion – that starts to become a not immaterial portion of total global investable assets. And so it forces a conversation where a given institution might decide that they want to hold zero. And that's okay. But that becomes an active decision that you have to make, whether you're going to be effectively short by holding zero, or there's some other number that's the right allocation. So we're seeing that client engagement and education journey unfold.  

Jay Jacobs: Just going to add to that. I think Robbie nailed it in terms of those different buckets. I think what's so interesting to see here is within the financial advisor community, how much they are realizing that their clients are buying Bitcoin or have owned Bitcoin, and fundamentally financial advisors to help manage the financial assets of their clients. And so now that they're realizing that Bitcoin is a real asset on their household balance sheet, advisors are getting more interested and more educated on this asset and saying, let me help manage that alongside your stocks and bonds and really kind of complete the financial picture for you. So I think it's been really fascinating specifically within the advisor channel to see how much ground has been made up in the last few months as you're starting to see more education and familiarity with Bitcoin and the importance to their clients. 

Ric Edelman: Yeah, I think you're right on that. Let's break down all three of these conversations because they're worthy of elaboration. On the retail side, investors, as demonstrated by the flows into these ETFs, retail investors are really excited about the availability of this product because they want to allocate to Bitcoin. They've heard about Bitcoin now for more than a decade. They've seen it's incredible price performance. They're hopeful that the price will continue to rise, and they want to have an allocation to it – that makes perfect sense, easy to understand. And the advisors who serve them have recognized as well that their clients have been buying Bitcoin elsewhere, because until the availability of these ETFs, advisors have been, for the most part, unable to provide Bitcoin to their clients, even if the clients wanted it, even if the advisor wanted to allocate, because there haven't been readily available products and their compliance departments have generally not made these available to them. So those objections go away. And Robbie, you said something really insightful that it's the independent RIAs, the independent registered investment advisors who are the most agile, the quickest to act. And I think that makes a lot of sense too, because independent RIAs, they own their own business. They don't have a lot of bureaucracy. They don't have to get anybody's approval. They are their own chief investment officer. They are their own chief compliance officer. If they want to do it, they can go do it. And so they are, they're acting very rapidly. But the big wire houses on the other side of the spectrum, the major broker dealers, they have massive work charts. They've got huge layers of management that all have to sign off on this, and they have very robust processes. They're not quick to act. They are very thorough in their due diligence. And what impresses me so much is your comment that they're working on it. They haven't said no, they haven't dismissed this. They're simply going through the process, which naturally takes time. Months, frankly, is not uncommon.  

Robbie Mitchnick: Well, usually years even, Ric, and that's a remarkable thing that maybe people don't realize is that the process being shortened and expedited because of the degree of client and advisor interest. But still takes multiple months, even a greatly reduced timeline.  

Ric Edelman: I also think that part of the reason they're moving so rapidly is because the price of Bitcoin is rising so rapidly. They recognize that this is an opportunistic investment opportunity. They don't want to necessarily miss it on behalf of their clients. You know, it's one thing to take your time with a money market account, because the dollar is always a dollar. But with Bitcoin starting the year at $42,000 and it's already approaching doubling that number, it's making people realize that time is money in a literal sense.  

Let's talk about the institutional side of the equation. Robbie, you said something really interesting about the institutions, that they are now making an active decision to do nothing. That in the past, the question would have been to an institutional investor. And I'm thinking a pension fund and endowment, maybe an insurance company, a sovereign wealth fund. They would have had to take an overt active step to allocate to Bitcoin. And the question that they would get by their board would be, why are you allocating to Bitcoin? Now the question is inverting, isn't it? Where the question has become, why aren't you allocating to it?  

Robbie Mitchnick: Well, I think that the process of that inversion hasn't yet fully played out. And so that that's sort of a gradual transformation that's happening where certainly, for most of Bitcoin's existence, any institutional allocator who was choosing to allocate was going to be an outlier, right? And would certainly, as you said, have to defend an exotic position, a non-standard contrarian choice to come into this very early stage volatile, high risk space. And I think what's happening is there is a little bit of that transition happening, where because of the greater access because of the larger number of investors across archetypes and institutions who have started to come into the space and because of Bitcoin's growth and market cap and becoming, as we talked about it, a non-trivial portion of global investable assets all of a sudden that it becomes a conscious decision. Certainly we're not at the point where you have to defend your decision to not hold any. We're not there yet. Maybe we'll get there. Maybe we won't. But the balance is shifting more towards it being a normal discussion that any institutions having of, what's our allocation going to be? And for some, it's going to be zero. And for others, it's going to be some modest number that they get comfortable with and have conviction around.  

Ric Edelman: And so let me ask the two of you that very question. What are you seeing among the different channels, retail advisors and institutions? What are you seeing in terms of allocations? Are we seeing 1%, 20%... what number Jay are you looking at? 

Jay Jacobs: Of early allocators, I would say it's certainly in kind of the lower single digits. Every portfolio is unique. Different investors have different objectives, different risk tolerances, but what we tend to see is really kind of in those lower single digits. Part of the reason is even in small amounts, 1% or 2% of a portfolio, Bitcoin can have pretty significant impact on things like risk and returns of the portfolio. So that tends to skew towards some lower allocations, but still meaningful allocations for our diversified portfolio globally. I will say where we are seeing more funding coming from as well is coming out of some of the equity portion of portfolios. If you look at Bitcoin's volatility, it actually is fairly similar to some of the tech stocks that we see on CNBC or on Fox Business each day. And so investors are maybe looking at Bitcoin more through a growth lens, they're tending to fund it through the equity portion of their portfolio. To the institutional conversation that we were just having, where investors maybe are looking more through a diversification lens or looking at it more as an alternative or a hedge against geopolitical monetary risk, we see it being funded more from an alternative funding in a portfolio, maybe sitting alongside gold.  

Ric Edelman: So that's really interesting that a little goes a long way. And I think that also helps people feel comfortable in investing. We're not asking you to make a big bet. We're not asking you to take 10% or 20% of your money and put it into something new and different. 1% or 2%, and I think that that helps people put a toe in the water and get involved in a manner that in other cases they may not have been willing to do that. 

Robbie Mitchnick: I think that's an important point. And the other point is that, related to that, at high concentrations or even sizable concentrations, then Bitcoin's volatility becomes a meaningful contributor to risk in a portfolio, right? And that's why it's generally not appropriate for most portfolios at a sizable concentration, but we're talking about modest allocations, like the numbers you threw out there. Then the fact that Bitcoin historically has been largely uncorrelated. And may on certain fundamental bases perhaps be inversely correlated to some of the other risks that portfolios face. Then that's what predominates, right? Is that correlation and the potential to have an alternative source of return, with impact on risk that is more manageable. So that's what we're seeing from more of our clients as you suggested in that 1% to 3% range more typically. 

Ric Edelman: Don't you find that counterintuitive that the conversation among many institutional investors is not so much what might be the return of Bitcoin, but rather what might be the risk impact to the rest of the portfolio of Bitcoin? That they're as interested in risk management as they are about the return potential. Jay, is that what you're discovering? 

Jay Jacobs: I think that’s right. As a generalization, institutional investors are often looking for things that are differentiated, differentiated from stocks, differentiated from bonds, differentiated from other alternatives they might have in their portfolio. And I think one of the compelling things around Bitcoin is it’s different. It's an asset. It behaves differently. There are different drivers that determine whether it's going to go up or down on a given day. And that is something really appealing to portfolio managers that are looking to build a diversified portfolio and think about different scenarios of how their portfolio could behave in different macro environments. So, Bitcoin, there's a lot of different ways to think about the utility of Bitcoin, but to those institutions, I do think they increasingly see it as an alternative to stocks and bonds.  

Ric Edelman: One final question on this theme. Are you finding a pattern or a consistency among different investors, retail, the advisors and the institutions in terms of their holding pattern, meaning are they generally buying for the long term? Or are they more active traders, you know, taking advantage of the volatility day to day?  

Jay Jacobs: It's early to say, the products just came out on January 11th. The beauty of an ETF is that it can be used by so many different investors in so many different ways. I will note trading spreads on IBIT are very tight. So it can be a great liquidity instrument for people that want to come and go quickly. But also the management fees are low for people who want to stay in the product over the long term. So the great thing about an ETF is really that ability to use it for different types of strategies. And we're seeing that play out in real time. There's absolutely more tactical users as well as people who are thinking about it from a portfolio perspective.  

Ric Edelman: And Robbie, this is as much as we've been excited to talk about the launch of the ETS and the success of Blackrock's ETF, IBIT. That's not the only thing going on in the world of Bitcoin here in 2024. The month of April was the quadrennial event of the Bitcoin halving. Explain to folks what the Bitcoin halving is, why it has historically been such a momentous occasion, and what overall your view on the impact of the halving on the price of Bitcoin over the next year. 

Robbie Mitchnick: Sure. Well, the halving refers to the reduction in the rate of issuance of new Bitcoin, the issuance of new Bitcoin that happens every 10 minutes to miners as a reward for keeping the state of the network and validating transactions, all the transactions that happen over the Bitcoin blockchain. And so, when Bitcoin was started all of its future supply issuance schedule was hard coded into the protocol, which, of course, is very attractive feature to lots of folks. Given its contrast to how our fiat currency system works where governments and central banks have typically authority to increase the supply of money as they see fit, Bitcoin works very differently. And so, there've been three past events where the new issuance rate gets cut in half as it does every four years. Today, the rate of newly issued Bitcoin per year is about 1.8% annually. And with this event that's just happened, it is cut in half again to about 0.9% per year. And historically, that's coincided with bull market runs, sample size of only three. So it's hard to draw a ton of conclusions from that. But, three out of three times that was the case where you had some bullish activity coming into the halving and then in the year of the halving, and the aftermath of it, bull markets did coincide with those events. And the theory for why that might be more than just a coincidence is that it means there's less structural new supply of Bitcoin coming into the market and miners ultimately need to generally, systematically sell the Bitcoin that they earn, in these rewards back to US dollars to pay their US dollar denominated expenses. 

So when the having occurs, that means there's less new structural supply coming to market to be sold. So today that means we've gone from about 900 Bitcoin a day in newly issued supply down to about 450 Bitcoin a day. And that'll continue to drop by a half every four years. 

Ric Edelman: And so it's clearly a supply demand conversation. If we look at the inflows into these ETFs of people wanting to buy Bitcoin, and the number of new Bitcoins that are being produced available to them, there's a big disconnect between that, the amount of money the people are putting into the ETFs to buy Bitcoin versus the number of new bitcoins available. That's like a 20 to one differential, you know, for every $20 people are putting in there's only $1 worth of Bitcoin available. And so that's part of the argument as to why Bitcoin's price will rise. That's conjecture, of course, as you said, I worked the last three halvings doesn't mean it will happen the next one. We all know that very wonderful phrase past performance is no guarantee of future results, but it does have the attention of people in the crypto community with the having since it only comes every four years. Is there any final commentary, any final recommendation that you would leave with both investors and advisors as they tackle the question of whether or not they ought to allocate to Bitcoin or to these ETFs? 

Jay Jacobs: Okay, I think the important thing for any new asset is to get educated on the asset and to start to think through, does this make sense in my portfolio? If so, how much should I allocate? How often should I rebalance and really start to think about kind of due diligence in the asset. This is not a decision we expect people to make over the course of a day. This is a process that will take many investors many months or even years to decide if they're comfortable with Bitcoin. I think the ETF is a key step in that journey of making access more convenient to more investors. But we hope in the education that Blackrock's providing, as well as more familiarity with the asset that this is going to help get people more comfortable and more knowledgeable about how it functions. 

Robbie Mitchnick: I think that's exactly right. And we're here to help.  

Ric Edelman: And if you would like to learn more about both Bitcoin as well as the Blackrock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, IBIT, commonly known as IBIT, I encourage you to go to Blackrock.com or to iShares.com. They have a lot of great content on these ETFs broadly. The specific Blackrock ETFs, on Bitcoin, IBIT and they have a huge number of folks ready and able to answer your questions as well. All of those links are in your show notes today as well. That's Jay Jacobs and Robbie Mitchnick of iShares and Blackrock. Gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here today. And again, congratulations on your early success with IBIT.  

Robbie Mitchnick: Thank you, Ric.  

Jay Jacobs: Thanks so much, Ric.  

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Disclosures: 

THIS INFORMATION MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A CURRENT ISHARES BITCOIN TRUST PROSPECTUS, WHICH MAY BE OBTAINED BY CLICKING HERE. PLEASE READ THE PROSPECTUS CAREFULLY BEFORE INVESTING.  

THE ISHARES BITCOIN TRUST IS NOT AN INVESTMENT COMPANY REGISTERED UNDER THE INVESTMENT COMPANY ACT OF 1940, AND THEREFORE IS NOT SUBJECT TO THE SAME REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS AS MUTUAL FUNDS OR ETFS REGISTERED UNDER THE INVESTMENT COMPANY ACT OF 1940.  THE TRUST IS NOT A COMMODITY POOL FOR PURPOSES OF THE COMMODITY EXCHANGE ACT. BEFORE MAKING AN INVESTMENT DECISION, YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY CONSIDER THE RISK FACTORS AND OTHER INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THE PROSPECTUS.  

INVESTING INVOLVES A HIGH DEGREE OF RISK, INCLUDING POSSIBLE LOSS OF PRINCIPAL. AN INVESTMENT IN THE TRUST IS NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL INVESTORS, MAY BE DEEMED SPECULATIVE AND IS NOT INTENDED AS A COMPLETE INVESTMENT PROGRAM. AN INVESTMENT IN SHARES SHOULD BE CONSIDERED ONLY BY PERSONS WHO CAN BEAR THE RISK OF TOTAL LOSS ASSOCIATED WITH AN INVESTMENT IN THE TRUST.  

Investing in digital assets, such as bitcoin, involves significant risks due to their extreme price volatility and the potential for loss, theft, or compromise of private keys. The value of the shares is closely tied to acceptance, industry developments, and governance changes, making them susceptible to market sentiment. Digital assets represent a new and rapidly evolving industry, and the value of the Shares depends on the acceptance of bitcoin.  Changes in the governance of a digital asset network may not receive sufficient support from users and miners, which may negatively affect that digital asset network’s ability to grow and respond to challenges  Investing in the Trust comes with risks that could impact the Trust's share value, including large-scale sales by major investors, security threats like breaches and hacking, negative sentiment among speculators, and competition from central bank digital currencies and financial initiatives using blockchain technology. A disruption of the internet or a digital asset network, such as the Bitcoin network, would affect the ability to transfer digital assets, including bitcoin, and, consequently, would impact their value. There can be no assurance that security procedures designed to protect the Trust’s assets will actually work as designed or prove to be successful in safeguarding the Trust’s assets against all possible sources of theft, loss or damage.   

The Trust may incur certain extraordinary, non-recurring expenses that are not assumed by the Sponsor.     

Shares of the Trust are not deposits or other obligations of or guaranteed by BlackRock, Inc., and its affiliates, and are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. The sponsor of the trust is iShares Delaware Trust Sponsor LLC (the “Sponsor”). BlackRock Investments, LLC ("BRIL"), assists in the promotion of the Trust. The Sponsor and BRIL are affiliates of BlackRock, Inc. The Bitcoin Custodian is Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC, which is not affiliated with BlackRock, Inc. The Sponsor is not responsible for losses incurred due to loss, theft, destruction, or compromise of the trust's bitcoin. 

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. This material represents an assessment of the market environment as of the date indicated; is subject to change; and is not intended to be a forecast of future events or a guarantee of future results. This information should not be relied upon by the reader as research or investment advice regarding the funds or any issuer or security in particular. 

This material contains general information only and does not take into account an individual's financial circumstances. This information should not be relied upon as a primary basis for an investment decision. Rather, an assessment should be made as to whether the information is appropriate in individual circumstances and consideration should be given to talking to a financial professional before making an investment decision. 

BLACKROCK and iSHARES are trademarks of BlackRock, Inc. or its affiliates. All other trademarks are those of their respective owners. 

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Links from today’s show: 

LAST CHANCE (ENDS TODAY AT 11:59 ET) - 50% Off CBDA and VISION = Bitcoin Halving Celebration (use code “HALVING”): https://dacfp.com/   

Why Bitcoin Will Rise to $420,000 (FREE Webinar!) - Replay Coming Soon: https://dacfp.com/webinar-why-bitcoin-will-rise-to-420000/    

Blackrock: https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual  

iShares.com: https://www.ishares.com/us  

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