(Bloomberg) -- BlackRock Inc.’s Bitcoin fund posted an unprecedented net inflow as speculation over how the US election may play out stirs demand for the largest digital asset.
Some $872 million poured into the iShares Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund on Wednesday, a daily record, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Subscriptions for the nine-month-old product in 2024 are among the highest for ETFs globally.
The inflows into the $31 billion portfolio — the biggest for Bitcoin — point to a so-called Trump trade as pro-crypto Republican nominee Donald Trump is ahead in betting markets in the countdown to Election Day on Nov. 5. The original cryptocurrency is also on the cusp of a record high after a 13% rally in October.
“There’s a lot of demand coming into these ETFs, for sure,” James Seyffart, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said on Bloomberg Television. Investors may be reacting to Bitcoin’s momentum as well as Trump’s odds, he said.
Trump has pledged to turn the US into the crypto capital of the planet. His rival, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, has vowed to back a regulatory framework for the industry. Opinion polls show an effective dead heat in the final days of one of the most tumultuous presidential campaigns in history.
Bitcoin fell about 1% to $72,320 as of 7:27 a.m. Thursday in London. The token’s current all-time peak of $73,798 was set in March. Most other major digital assets were also nursing modest losses.
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