BlackRock, an asset management company with $9 trillion in assets, invested about $380 million in BTC miners

According to Forbes, a mandatory SEC document dated June 30, 2021 shows that BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company with $9 trillion in assets, has held a large number of shares in two Bitcoin miners, worth $380 million, of which Marathon Digital Holdings holds 6.71% and Riot Blockchain holds 6.61%.

BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) is an American investment management company headquartered in New York City, USA, with 70 offices in 30 countries around the world and clients in 100 countries. Its main business is to provide investment management, risk management and financial consulting services for legal entities and retail channels. Its well-known funds include BlackRock Global Asset Allocation Fund, BlackRock World Mining Fund, BlackRock Latin America Fund, BlackRock Emerging Europe Fund, BlackRock World Energy Fund and BlackRock New Energy Fund.

It’s worth noting that among Blackrock’s hundreds of mutual funds and ETFs, broad indexes like the iShares Russell 2000 ETF and the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector own crypto miner stocks.

The disclosure comes after Fidelity recently revealed that it had taken a similarly large stake in Bitcoin miners. Earlier, it was revealed that Fidelity Investments Inc., one of the earliest financial institutions to embrace cryptocurrencies and digital assets, purchased a 7.4% stake in Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital Holdings for about $20 million through four index funds.

The recent acquisitions appear to indicate a growing trend among institutional and individual investors to invest in the cryptocurrency industry through traditional equity, debt securities, funds, etc., with listed mining becoming a major option.

Data shows that Marathon Digital, a North American mining company invested by BlackRock and Fidelity, had revenue of $29.3 million in the second quarter, a 220% increase from the previous quarter and a 10,147% increase from $286,000 in the same period last year. Marathon mined 654 bitcoins in the second quarter, and a total of 846 bitcoins in the first half of this year. Its investment fund purchased 4,812.66 BTC for approximately $150 million in January 2021, and the fair value increased by $16.9 million in the first six months of 2021.

Riot Blockchain, a Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company invested by BlackRock, mined a total of 243 Bitcoins in June, an increase of about 406% from the production of 48 BTC in June 2020. As of June 2021, the company has produced a total of 1,167 BTC, an increase of about 130% from 508 BTC in the same period of 2020.

In addition, Riot Blockchain predicts that its new facility in Rockdale, Texas will increase its computing power to 7.7 EH/s in the fourth quarter of 2022. According to the announcement, the company said that by early September, it expects to have 25,946 Antminers in operation with an estimated computing capacity of 2.6 EH/s. With the full deployment of more than 80,000 Antminers, the company predicts a total computing capacity of 7.7 EH/s by the fourth quarter of next year. (Golden Finance)