BlackRock published its results for the third quarter of 2026 on Wednesday, October 14. According to Journal du Coin, which draws on the group’s quarterly release, the asset management giant held $79.6 billion in digital assets at the end of September, compared with $48.8 billion at the end of June, an increase of 63% in three months. The figure is striking, but its breakdown shows that markets contributed more to it than clients did.

Price effect versus flows

Between the end of June and the end of September, BlackRock’s digital assets under management rose by $30.8 billion. According to the figures cited by Journal du Coin, $22.9 billion came from rising prices, with bitcoin climbing back above the $80,000 mark. Net inflows, that is, the money actually brought in by investors, amounted to $7.9 billion between July and September.

This distinction is essential for reading the 63% figure. Assets under management measure the value of the assets held on a given date: they rise mechanically when the price of bitcoin goes up, even without any new money from clients. Flows, on the other hand, reveal how investors are behaving. Journal du Coin sums it up by saying that these flows “tell only a quarter of the story”.

The $7.9 billion in net inflows in the third quarter follows a first half of 2026 marked by $2.2 billion in net outflows, a period during which the market downturn was also weighing on the valuation of the funds.

Modest revenues on the group’s scale

The rise in assets under management also translates into revenue. According to the same source, BlackRock’s digital products generated $39 million in fees and securities lending revenue in the third quarter. That amount should be set against the roughly $14,000 billion the group manages in total, according to its annual letter.

The release does not break out separately the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), the group’s bitcoin ETF, even though it dominates its market. The published data therefore do not show how the $79.6 billion total is split among BlackRock’s various digital products. According to a count by BestBrokers cited by Journal du Coin, IBIT held 785,635 bitcoins in the third quarter, enough to account for nearly two thirds of all US spot ETFs combined.

Still far from the level of a year ago

Despite this rebound, BlackRock’s digital assets under management remain 23% below the roughly $104 billion reached a year earlier. Over twelve months, falling prices wiped out $30.6 billion, while clients added $6.3 billion in fresh money. In other words, over this period investors remained net buyers, but not enough to offset the price effect.

The finding goes beyond BlackRock. According to SoSoValue data, reported by the website 24/7 Wall St and picked up by Journal du Coin, US spot bitcoin ETFs had attracted only $985 million between January and the end of September. October also got off to a poor start, with more than $400 million in net outflows over the first two weeks of the month, according to Farside Investors.

The fourth quarter is opening in an unfavourable environment. On Wednesday, October 14, US inflation accelerated again, and bitcoin was back at around $83,000, according to the same source.

What these figures say, and what they do not

The amounts cited are those published by BlackRock and reported by the specialist press; the breakdown between price effect and flows comes from the release as relayed by Journal du Coin. In the absence of a product-by-product breakdown, it is not possible on this basis to isolate the share of bitcoin from that of other digital assets, nor the contribution of each fund. The industry figures also come from third parties (BestBrokers, SoSoValue, Farside Investors), whose calculation methods are not specified in the source.

For a reader in Switzerland, these data relate to BlackRock’s products and to the US ETF market. They say nothing about listed crypto products available from Switzerland or about their flows. They do, however, illustrate a general mechanism that applies to any listed product backed by cryptocurrencies: its value tracks first and foremost that of the underlying assets, and a sharp rise in assets under management may reflect a market movement more than renewed investor interest. This article does not constitute investment advice.

Sources

  • Journal du Coin: “Crypto: BlackRock’s ETFs rebound by 63%, far from their 2025 peak”