Nicholas Peach, head of iShares for Asia Pacific at BlackRock, said even modest portfolio allocation models to Asian cryptocurrencies could drive significant inflows into the market.
Speaking at the Consensus conference in Hong Kong, Peach said growing institutional acceptance of cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs), especially in Asia, is reshaping expectations for the industry.
“Some model advisors now recommend a 1% allocation to cryptocurrencies in a standard portfolio,” Peach said. “If you do some interesting math…there’s about $108 trillion in household wealth across Asia. So you take 1% of that…that’s just south of the $2 trillion that’s coming into the market, which is 60% of the market right now?”
Peach highlights this as one way to determine the size of sideline capital, especially in traditional finance. He believes that small shifts in asset allocation models could have a huge impact on the future of digital assets — even if adoption remains conservative.
BlackRock’s iShares unit is the world’s largest provider of ETFs and plays a central role in providing regulated cryptocurrency investments to traditional investors. The company launched a U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETF in January 2024. The fund, called IBIT, became the fastest-growing ETF in history and now has nearly $53 billion in assets under management.
But according to Peach, this boom is not just an American story. Asian investors account for a large portion of inflows into U.S.-listed crypto ETFs. “There’s actually a broader boom in ETF adoption in the region,” he said, noting that more and more investors are turning to ETFs to express views on asset classes — not just cryptocurrencies, but also equities, fixed income and commodities.
Several markets in Asia, including Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea, are preparing to launch or expand crypto ETF products. Industry observers expect these regional platforms to deepen as regulatory transparency increases.
For BlackRock and other asset managers, the next challenge is matching product access with investor education and portfolio strategy.
“The pool of capital available in traditional finance is incredibly large,” Peach said. “It doesn’t take a lot of adoption to have really significant financial results.”
