Blackstone, which bills itself as the “the world’s largest alternative asset manager,” disclosed its first-ever crypto-related purchase, buying shares in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
However, Blackstone’s investment, reported in a May 20 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, only totaled around $1.08 million — a fraction of the asset manager’s $1.2 trillion portfolio.
Blackstone reported holding 23,094 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) as of March 31.
The IBIT shares were added to Blackstone’s Alternative Multi-Strategy Fund (BTMIX), which holds $2.63 billion worth of assets, Google Finance data shows.
The filing shows Blackstone also bought 4,300 shares in crypto ATM operator Bitcoin Depot Inc. (BTM) for a total cost of $6,300 and spent $181,166 scooping up 9,889 shares of the ProShares Bitcoin ETF (BITO).
Despite its claim as an “alternative asset manager,” Blackstone has largely stayed away from crypto. In September 2019, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman said he liked the concept of blockchain but thought its use for money was “pretty odd.”
