BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust Is Outperforming Vanguard’s Top S&P 500 ETF
Key Takeaways
- •BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust is up 71% since its January 2024 launch, ahead of Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF at 66%.
- •The comparison was highlighted by BlackRock senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas using Bloomberg data.
- •IBIT launched after the SEC approved 11 spot bitcoin ETFs in 2024, ending a long period of denials.
- •BlackRock says IBIT manages $61.4 billion, far more than the second-largest bitcoin ETF, Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, at nearly $11 billion.
- •Bitcoin recently traded at $77,539 after touching $81,281 last week, even as ETF inflows helped support the price in August.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund has delivered stronger returns since its 2024 launch than Vanguard’s popular S&P 500 fund.
That is according to Bloomberg data highlighted by BlackRock senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, who said the bitcoin product’s cumulative percentage return was only slightly ahead of Vanguard’s over the same period.
BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF is up 71% since its January 2024 debut, while Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF is up 66% on a total-return basis.
“Hard to believe $IBIT is beating $VOO since inception but it's true..altho it's close. And to be fair, IBIT's path to 70% looks like the El Toro roller coaster at Great Adventure (i needed two Advil last time I rode that thing) while $VOO was a walk in the park in comparison.… pic.twitter.com/vpOgI7JZKL” — Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) September 1, 2026
“Hard to believe $IBIT is beating $VOO since inception but it's true..altho it's close. And to be fair, IBIT's path to 70% looks like the El Toro roller coaster at Great Adventure (I needed two Advil last time I rode that thing) while $VOO was a walk in the park in comparison.… pic.twitter.com/vpOgI7JZKL”
The iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT, began trading in 2024 after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 spot bitcoin ETFs following a decade of denials, giving U.S. investors a regulated way to access bitcoin through a familiar fund structure. Since then, investors have had several options for bitcoin exposure through shares tracking the cryptocurrency’s price, including products managed by Fidelity, Grayscale and Morgan Stanley.
“IBIT’s path to 70% looks like the El Toro roller coaster at Great Adventure (I needed two Advil last time I rode that thing) while $VOO was a walk in the park in comparison,” Balchunas wrote on Tuesday.
BlackRock’s fund has been the most successful, and its website says it currently manages $61.4 billion in assets. By comparison, the second-largest bitcoin ETF, the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, manages nearly $11 billion.
BlackRock, which manages more than $15 trillion in assets, drew attention across the crypto sector when it applied for a spot bitcoin ETF in 2023. The fund now gives more traditional investors exposure to bitcoin and also sees more day-to-day trading activity than the other ETFs, underscoring how quickly spot bitcoin products have become part of the broader ETF market.
Investors returned to ETFs in August, which also supported bitcoin’s price. From August 17 to 27, investors put more than $2.8 billion into the vehicles, the most since October, when the coin hit a new all-time high.
Bitcoin reached as high as $81,281 last week before falling again on Friday.
The price of the largest cryptocurrency recently stood at $77,539, nearly 1% lower over a 24-hour period.
Bitcoin began a strong run two weeks ago — its best in three years — and is up nearly 30% over the past month.
This post, “BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust Is Beating Top S&P 500 ETF,” first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.
