Bitcoin: From Basement Miners to Bloomberg Terminals
How BlackRock’s IBIT ETF Is Reshaping Bitcoin Into Wall Street’s New Favorite Risk Asset

Bitcoin’s rebellious roots once put it far outside the confines of traditional finance. But fast forward to 2025, and the tables have turned. The center of gravity for Bitcoin trading has shifted from the offshore crypto wildlands to the glass towers of Wall Street, where institutional powerhouses are not only embracing the asset, but reshaping how it behaves in the financial ecosystem.
At the epicenter of this transformation is BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, better known as IBIT. In less than a year, IBIT has become the largest Bitcoin ETF with $86 billion in assets under management. But it’s not just the size that matters. It’s how IBIT is unlocking a new era of Bitcoin trading—one that aligns more with S&P options than with Reddit-fueled crypto pumps.
The rapid rise of options linked to IBIT has set the financial world ablaze. Open interest in these contracts has tripled to $34 billion, and daily trading volumes now average $4 billion, putting it shoulder to shoulder with gold and major equity ETFs. That’s not typical for an ETF less than a year old. It’s a signal that Bitcoin has entered a new phase, one where it’s no longer viewed as a fringe asset but as a legitimate component of institutional portfolios.
