BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF is driving retail adoption — but is that enough?
Retail adoption is often seen as the missing piece in Bitcoin's long-term success. And while institutions and sovereign wealth funds are pouring in, some experts believe that mass retail participation remains essential.
'I do feel retail growth and adoption will be important to the long-term future of Bitcoin,' said TheStreet Roundtable host Rob Nelson in a recent conversation with Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks. 'Just having big institutions, sovereign wealth funds, strategic reserves — all good — but you kind of need a wider adoption worldwide.'
Sui is the founding CEO and chairman of the board of CF Benchmarks, leading the firm since its inception in 2018. He has overseen its overall strategy and execution, shaping it into a key player in crypto index benchmarks. Before CF Benchmarks, Sui spent 16 years in the traditional financial data sector with Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. In 2019, CF Benchmarks was acquired by Kraken.
Chung agreed, but offered a critical distinction. 'There's a distinction we need to make here, Rob, between adoption of physical holding of Bitcoin and sending that Bitcoin self custody, et cetera… and then there's just holding Bitcoin,' he explained.
Retail might not be adopting Bitcoin the way crypto purists imagined — but they are adopting it, thanks to exchange-traded funds like BlackRock's IBIT.
'We know that about 70% of all the funds invested in IBIT in the ETF are from individual, effectively retail investors,' Chung said, citing 13F filings. 'So the ETFs are actually… one of the biggest conduits for retail investor dollars to come into and deploy into Bitcoin.'
In short, ETFs have become the 'top of the funnel' for Bitcoin exposure — especially for investors who are curious but not yet ready to manage private keys or self-custody wallets.
'I agree with you that for Bitcoin to truly flourish, you do need both sides of adoption,' said Chung. 'You need the physical self-custody interaction with the crypto economy… But we also do need investors who have perhaps not as strong an opinion on the benefits of blockchain and self custody… to get their feet wet.'
While crypto veterans value decentralized ownership, Chung emphasized that any exposure — even through regulated ETFs — is a step forward. 'They are both forms of exposure and they are both forms of buying and holding Bitcoin,' he concluded.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $82,313.81, down 3.1% in the last 24 hours, according to Kraken.
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