Robert Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock, said more than 90% of Bitcoin ETF investors, including individual investors, financial advisors, and institutional investors, follow a steady accumulation strategy.
In an interview with CNBC today, Mitchnick said that while retail investors are “some of the people who are most focused on long-term investing” and tend to “buy on the edge” when markets are down, hedge funds have a smaller share of more tactical trading activity.
When asked what ETF flows reveal about the behavior of crypto investors, Mitchnick said, “The only part of the demand base that shows a tendency toward short-termism is the roughly 10 percent or so that actually consists of hedge funds.”
He added that these investors employ a variety of trading strategies, including basis trading, long spot ETFs, and short futures contracts. These trades are largely market neutral, but may result in temporary inflows or outflows to ETF data.
“But over 90 percent of the other types of investor bases tend to be very stable and have been on a fairly consistent accumulation path,” Mitchnick emphasized.
He pointed out that despite the decline in Bitcoin prices, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ranked among the top ETF inflows in the world in 2025, attracting approximately $26 billion, making it the fourth-largest ETF in the world in terms of inflows despite the asset recording negative returns.
“There is clearly significant selling pressure elsewhere in the Bitcoin ecosystem, including crypto exchanges and offshore-powered criminal platforms,” Mitchnick said. “But the ETF investor base has a more stable, long-term fundamental view of things.”
Bitcoin and Ether dominate demand for crypto ETFs
Commenting on investor demand for crypto assets, Mitchnick reiterated that it remains overwhelmingly focused on Bitcoin and Ethereum.
While BlackRock sees interest in other crypto assets, it is taking a “very insightful approach” to expanding its crypto offerings within the iShares ETF lineup.
“We will continue to evaluate the landscape as it evolves and the maturity, scale of liquidity and use cases develop,” he said.
Staking changes the economics of Ether ETFs
This week, a major asset management company launched ETHB, a staking-enabled Ether ETF. The fund attracted more than $43 million in net inflows in its trading debut, according to Farside Investors.
Previous Ethereum ETFs did not earn staking rewards, so investors could not participate in the network’s native yield.
The new structure addresses that limitation and adds an income element that many portfolio allocators see as a meaningful incentive and could help close the adoption gap with Bitcoin products.
Despite the constraints, BlackRock’s flagship Ethereum ETF, ETHA, became the third fastest ETF in history to reach $10 billion in assets under management, behind IBIT and FBTC.
With the inclusion of staking yield, the company expects ETHB to become a leading ETF vehicle for Ether exposure.
Mitchnick said the fund is almost a silver bullet for investors looking for convenient exposure.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. Please see our Editorial Policy for more information on how we create and review content.
