Wall Street Piles Into Bitcoin as IBIT ETF Storms Past $70 Billion

The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is rewriting the rulebook on ETF success. In just under 18 months, it’s gone from a newcomer to a heavyweight with over $70 billion in assets — and it’s not slowing down.

This meteoric rise is setting off alarm bells and sirens across trading floors. Wall Street money, once skeptical of crypto, is now pouring into the ETF at breakneck speed. As of this week, IBIT has pulled in more than $47 billion in cumulative inflows. It’s officially larger than the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD), and breathing down the neck of the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), a long-time favorite for risk-averse investors.

Bitcoin’s Biggest Cheerleader Isn’t a Person — It’s BlackRock

If anyone thought Bitcoin’s mainstream moment had already happened, they missed the memo. IBIT, which is managed by asset management titan BlackRock, is the loudest bullhorn for Bitcoin on Wall Street right now.

Just 18 months in, and it’s already the eighth biggest ETF in BlackRock’s vast lineup of 463 funds. Let that sink in. Funds that have been around for decades are being leapfrogged by this upstart.

And it’s not just internal bragging rights.

IBIT has climbed into the top 30 ETFs in the entire U.S. by assets under management (AUM). That’s a seat at the big boys’ table — a spot usually reserved for blue-chip dividend funds and legacy index trackers. BlackRock knows how to build empires, but even this is fast by their standards.

The Gold Exodus Is Fueling Bitcoin’s Climb

Here’s where things get interesting: the old guard is cracking.

Gold — the asset everyone runs to when the world feels uncertain — is now seeing money pour out. The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), once a no-brainer hedge, has seen $4 billion walk out the door in just the last month. That’s not a trickle. That’s a flood.

GLD is still clinging to $97 billion in assets. But if current trends hold, IBIT is on track to surpass it — possibly before year-end. That’s not just symbolic. It’s historic.

The ETF Race Is Heating Up — But IBIT Still Leads the Pack

Other spot Bitcoin ETFs have done well too, though none come close to IBIT’s gravitational pull.

Here’s a snapshot of the current landscape:

• Fidelity’s FBTC has seen $11.83 billion in inflows and now holds over $21 billion in AUM.

• ARKB, launched by Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, boasts $2.79 billion in inflows with $4.7 billion under management.

• Grayscale, Bitwise, VanEck, and Valkyrie are also in the game, building momentum but trailing far behind.

Collectively, all spot Bitcoin ETFs have pulled in north of $43 billion and now control more than $130 billion in assets.

But when it comes to daily trading volume? It’s not even close.

On Wednesday, IBIT alone moved more than $66 million — more than all the others combined. That kind of liquidity makes big institutions feel right at home.

Bitcoin’s Price Surge Is Feeding the Frenzy

This ETF boom didn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s riding shotgun with Bitcoin’s price explosion.

Just this week, Bitcoin hit a fresh all-time high of $111,900. That’s not a typo.

Polymarket traders — those who put money where their mouth is — are betting it’ll hit $150,000 by year’s end. Some analysts think even that’s conservative.

Let’s talk about the really big calls:

• BlackRock: Bitcoin could top $700,000 long-term

• ARK Invest: It may reach a mind-bending $2.4 million by 2030

Sound far-fetched? Maybe. But remember, they said $100,000 was a joke once too.

Why Supply — Not Just Hype — Is Doing the Heavy Lifting

Behind the scenes, there’s a quieter story that matters just as much as the price fireworks: supply.

Bitcoin’s max supply is capped at 21 million tokens. That’s it. And here’s the kicker — 19.8 million of those have already been mined.

Now subtract the following:

• Millions of coins lost to forgotten keys and hardware failures

• Coins hoarded by long-term holders and institutions unwilling to sell

What’s left in circulation? Not much.

The result: supply on both centralized exchanges and over-the-counter desks has shrunk to historic lows in 2025. This digital scarcity has started behaving more like digital gold — except it moves faster and captures more attention.

Let’s look at a comparison table of Bitcoin vs Gold (as of May 2025):

Wall Street’s Bitcoin Bet Is Now Unmistakable

Some still argue Bitcoin’s too volatile. Others think it’s a fad.

But when the world’s largest asset managers are not just buying in — but building entire ETF ecosystems around it — the narrative shifts.

Money talks. And right now, it’s screaming one word: Bitcoin.