BlackRock’s IBIT Defies Bitcoin Slump to Beat Gold in 2025 ETF Flows
BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is ready to shut 2025 as a top-tier power in the US monetary panorama. The fund achieved a uncommon feat in asset administration by elevating billions of {dollars} whereas shedding cash for its buyers.
Data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence confirms that IBIT secured the sixth spot on the US ETF leaderboard by web inflows.
Institutional ‘Dip Buying’ Drives $25 Billion into IBIT Despite Negative Returns
The fund attracted $25.4 billion in contemporary capital all year long, outpacing conventional heavyweights such because the Invesco QQQ Trust and the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD).
This capital flood occurred regardless of a stark divergence in asset efficiency.
While gold surged nearly 65% in 2025—pushed by central financial institution shopping for and geopolitical hedging—IBIT posted a year-to-date lack of 9.59%.
The fund’s efficiency suffered as Bitcoin retreated approximately 30% from its October file high of $126,173, buying and selling close to $88,000.
Typically, adverse returns set off capital flight.
However, IBIT’s ability to attract $25 billion throughout a correction alerts a basic shift in investor conduct. It reveals that institutional allocators are systematically shopping for the dip slightly than panic-selling volatility.
Considering this, Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas characterised the inflows as a definitive bullish sign for the asset’s long-term trajectory.
“IBIT is the one ETF on the 2025 Flow Leaderboard with a adverse return for the yr,” Balchunas acknowledged.
Meanwhile, James Thorne, Chief Market Strategist at Wellington-Altus, argues that these flows validate the “financialization” of Bitcoin.
According to him, the digital asset now behaves much less like a speculative tech inventory and extra like a mature macro commodity.
“Watching how Bitcoin now trades, the market microstructure and narrative administration more and more resemble the way in which gold behaved for many years underneath heavy institutional affect, with worth motion reflecting not simply basic demand, but additionally positioning, product design, and the preferences of enormous monetary intermediaries,” he added.
For the broader market, BlackRock IBIT’s 2025 performance proves that the Bitcoin ETF just isn’t a fad. It has efficiently entrenched itself in institutional portfolios, flipping gold as the popular “various” allocation even when the valuable metallic vastly outperforms on worth.
As the yr ends with Bitcoin trading at a discount to its highs, the good cash is betting that the infrastructure BlackRock constructed will drive the following leg up.
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