BlackRock crypto funds outperform peers with positive $3.3 billion Q1 inflows

World-leading asset manager BlackRock reported $3.35 billion in inflows into its digital assets exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the first quarter of 2025. The firm disclosed this in its Q1 earnings release, noting its mixed but positive quarter.

According to the report, the $3.35 billion represents an 83% drop from what BlackRock crypto ETFs recorded in Q4 of 2024. Still, digital assets inflows account for 2.8% of the $84 billion the firm pulled in during the quarter, which is impressive, given the many products under BlackRock management and the relatively recent arrival of the crypto ETFs.

However, the decline in inflows compared to last quarter is unsurprising, given the different market conditions between the two periods. In the fourth quarter of 2024, expectations about the crypto market were high following Donald Trump’s presidential victory, and prices were skyrocketing.

The first quarter of 2025 was characterized by market uncertainty due to the Trump tariffs against US trading partners and fears that the country could be headed into recession. Still, the relatively sizable inflows have shown that there is still interest in digital asset products even with the volatility.

The firm CEO, Larry Fink, also acknowledged this in the statement accompanying the report, but added that the firm is positioned to help clients make the best of the market.

He said:

“Uncertainty and anxiety about the future of markets and the economy are dominating client conversations. We’ve seen periods like this before when there were large, structural shifts in policy and markets – like the financial crisis, COVID, and surging inflation in 2022.”

Interestingly, not just the digital assets products saw a drop in inflows for the first quarter of 2025. This quarter’s $84 billion inflows represent a 70% drop compared to the $281 million that all BlackRock investment products attracted in the fourth quarter of last year. This shows how uncertainty affected global markets as a whole.

Nevertheless, BlackRock remains in the green year-on-year as the firm saw a 3% organic assets annualized growth, a 12% increase in revenue, and an 11% rise in assets under management (AUM).

BlackRock Crypto products best performers in Q1

Despite the more than 80% fall in inflow for BlackRock digital assets products in 2025 Q1, the firm actually did better than all other firms with digital assets investment products. CoinShares data shows that most asset managers recorded outflows for their crypto-based products.

Apart from BlackRock, the only other firms with positive flows year to date are  ProShares and Ark 21Shares, with $398 million and $148 million, respectively.

Other firms, such as Fidelity, Bitwise, 21 Shares AG, and Grayscale, all had net outflows this year, with Grayscale having the highest at $1.39 billion. This means that BlackRock iShares digital assets products are a big part of why crypto investment products still have a positive flow of $960 million in 2025.

Crypto less than 1% of BlackRock AUM and Revenue

Meanwhile, the sizable impact of BlackRock digital assets products in the sector pales in comparison to its size among BlackRock’s AUM. Of the firm’s $11.6 trillion AUM, only $50.3 billion was in digital assets products as of March 31, representing less than 0.5%.

With the low portion of its AUM, the digital assets product fees were  $34 million, less than 1% of the company’s $4.1 billion in revenue. This is partly influenced by the low management fees of 0.25% that the firm charges for its crypto ETFS.

Interestingly, the firm saw a 6% growth in its base fee for this quarter, which Fink described as a sign of success. According to Fink, this is the firm’s best start to a year since 2021 and shows “secular strength against a complex market backdrop.”

Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More