BlackRock closed Q2 2026 with a record $15.34 trillion in assets under management, but its digital asset holdings took a beating. The firm reported a nearly 20% drop in crypto AUM to $48.8 billion, down from $60.7 billion at the start of the quarter. Client withdrawals of $3.1 billion and market losses of $8.7 billion drove the decline.
Digital assets: a rough quarter
Digital asset AUM is now 39% below where it stood a year ago, when BlackRock held $79.6 billion in crypto. Over the past 12 months, clients added $15.1 billion to digital asset products, but $45.8 billion in market losses wiped out those gains and then some. The segment generated just $40 million in base fees — less than 1% of BlackRock's total $5.7 billion fee revenue.
The timing isn't great. US spot Bitcoin ETFs had their worst month on record in June, with $4.5 billion in outflows. Bitcoin itself fell more than 20% last month. Daily outflows from Bitcoin ETFs hit $430 million in the week of the report. Bitcoin was near $64,756, up 2% in 24 hours but still 49% below its October 2025 peak of $126,080.
iShares keeps growing
Despite the crypto pain, BlackRock's core business is booming. Net inflows totaled $192 billion in Q2, with ETFs contributing $177.9 billion. iShares assets exceeded $6.2 trillion — roughly double their size three years ago. The firm added nearly $5 trillion in AUM over about two years. Revenue hit $7.08 billion, up 31% year-over-year. Adjusted earnings of $13.91 per share beat analyst estimates of $12.57. Adjusted operating margin was 45.9%, the best in almost five years.
The iShares Bitcoin Trust helped fuel CEO Larry Fink's biggest payday in 2025, but this quarter's outflows show how volatile that revenue stream can be.
BlackRock doesn't break out digital asset fee projections, but the $40 million in base fees this quarter is a reminder that crypto is still a tiny slice of the business. The bigger question is whether the ETF outflows will persist. With Bitcoin down sharply from its peak and macro uncertainty lingering, the next few months will test whether institutional appetite for spot Bitcoin ETFs rebounds or continues to bleed.
