BlackRock buys more than $1bn of bitcoin and ethereum over three days

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has made sizable purchases of bitcoin and ethereum over the past three days, underscoring its presence in institutional flows within the crypto market. Even as market volatility has increased, spot-based buying continued, drawing attention to the flow of funds itself.

According to a Jan. 8 report by CryptoNews, BlackRock bought 9,619 bitcoins and 46,851 ethers over the past three trading days. On-chain analytics account LookOnChain estimated the holdings’ value at about $1.027bn.

In detail, BlackRock bought 3,948 bitcoins on Jan. 6 alone, worth about $371.89m. On the same day, it also purchased an additional 31,737 ethers, estimated at roughly $100.23m. A substantial portion of crypto liquidity that has entered the market at the start of this year is flowing in via BlackRock.

The buying trend somewhat diverges from price action. Based on CoinMarketCap data, bitcoin is trading around $90,730, down about 2.18% over the past 24 hours, while ethereum is down nearly 4% at around $3,142.

Earlier, during the year-end holiday period, BlackRock transferred 1,134 bitcoins and 7,255 ethers to Coinbase Prime. Some in the market at the time raised speculation about potential selling, but with spot buying resuming afterward, some observers are focusing on the fund flows themselves.

Meanwhile, over the same period, Strategy, led by Michael Saylor, bought an additional 1,287 bitcoins, raising its total holdings to 673,783. With major institutions and companies continuing to buy and hold, the market is expected to keep watching on-chain fund movements for the time being.