Big Bitcoin (BTC) holders are reportedly working with asset managers like BlackRock to move their crypto fortunes to the traditional financial system.
Whales are now taking advantage of a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule that enables investors to exchange their Bitcoin for shares in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), reports Bloomberg.
The in-kind process is tax-neutral and involves neither cash payments nor recorded sale.
Investors whose crypto stakes are inside brokerage accounts can then use their holdings as collateral, borrow against them or include them in estate plans, which would otherwise be difficult and risky when the assets are held in private digital wallets.
BlackRock’s head of digital assets Robbie Mitchnick says that the financial titan behind the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) exchange-traded fund already facilitated more than $3 billion worth of BTC to ETF share conversions.
He says crypto investors inquiring about moving their digital assets to wealth-manager platforms range from those who want to convert just 20% of their BTC holdings to those who want to completely move their crypto assets to the traditional finance system.
“There is a subset who are just going 100/zero, saying ‘consolidate everything in this way, it’s the easiest way for me to hold this going forward.’”
The crypto index fund manager Bitwise Asset Management says it also receives similar inquiries daily while the liquidity provider Galaxy already processed a handful of Bitcoin holdings conversions.
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