Here are some of the major developments from the world of crypto over the past few days.
BlackRock has achieved a record $10.5 trillion in managed assets in the first quarter of 2024. The company's $76 billion quarterly long-term net inflows account for approximately 40% of its full-year 2023 levels. Major Bitcoin investor BlackRock continues to gain momentum, posting another successful quarter of income and managed assets.
BlackRock announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2024 on April 12, reporting a record $10.5 trillion in assets under management (AUM), up $1.4 trillion from 2023. The company's diluted earnings per share (EPS) surged from $7.9 million in Q1 2023 to $9.81 million in Q1 2024, reflecting higher non-operating income and a lower effective tax rate in the current quarter. Net income also increased from $1.2 billion in Q1 2023 to approximately $1.5 billion in Q1 2024.
BlackRock's record-breaking AUM growth coincided with handling $76 billion of quarterly long-term net inflows, which now account for about 40% of full-year 2023 levels. CEO Larry Fink, a major Bitcoin bull and industry advocate, reiterated his bullish outlook on Bitcoin's long-term success in March 2024. He cited the rapid development of IBIT, the fastest-growing ETF in history, as evidence of Bitcoin's potential. According to Fink, no ETF in history has gained assets as quickly as IBIT.
The United States government, along with other global states like the United Kingdom and Germany, holds a substantial amount of cryptocurrency, according to data from Arkham. Arkham, a crypto intelligence platform focused on deanonymizing entities on the blockchain, has unveiled a dashboard displaying the governments with the largest crypto holdings.
The new Arkham tracking tool allows users to monitor the real-time balance and transaction history of cryptocurrencies held by governments. The data shows that the U.S. government is the largest holder of Bitcoin among global states tracked by Arkham, with holdings of up to 212,847 BTC, valued at around $15 billion based on current prices. The U.K. government holds 61,245 BTC, worth around $4.5 billion, while the German government owns 49,858 BTC, equivalent to roughly $3.5 billion.
The dashboard also reveals that the U.S. government has been accumulating Bitcoin in recent years, adding at least 5,000 BTC since early 2023. A significant portion of the U.S. government's Bitcoin holdings comes from confiscations related to the dark web market Silk Road, its hacker Jimmy Zhong, and the hackers of the crypto exchange Bitfinex.
According to an April 12 blog post from VeChain, gloves worn by UFC fighters will soon be tokenized and their identities tracked on the VeChainThor network. The gloves will contain VeChain near-field communication (NFC) chips that record fight data, proving the authenticity of each pair, the post stated.
VeChain announced that an initial set of 12 exclusive gloves will be given to A-list celebrities, including Joe Rogan. UFC CEO Dana White will also be making a live presentation to announce the partnership. On VeChain’s Reddit board, holders of the VeChainThor (VTHO) token had mixed reactions to the news. Some were excited about the new use case for the network. Some users thought the new gloves would not burn enough VTHO from transaction fees to have any appreciable effect on the price.\
According to Coinmarketcap data, VeThor’s market cap was over $283 million as of April 12, making it one of the top 300 cryptocurrencies in the world. In May 2022, the network’s foundation had $1.2 billion in its treasury. In June of that year, the VeChain Foundation began its relationship with UFC, entering a $100 million sponsorship deal with the mixed martial arts promotion.