On August 1st, there was a report from Bloomberg stating that two major financial companies in the US, BlackRock and MSCI, are currently under investigation by the US government. The allegations suggest that these companies are facilitating the flow of hundreds of millions of USD from the US into the Chinese market, particularly to companies on the US government’s blacklist.
The investigating committee estimated that approximately 430 million USD is invested annually into around 60 Chinese companies deemed as “against the interests of the US,” using funds managed by BlackRock and MSCI.
In response to these accusations, BlackRock, through its representative, stated that they always adhere to the laws and regulations of the US government in all their investment activities, including those in China and other global markets. They reassured their commitment to cooperate closely with the investigation committee to address the raised concerns.
It is worth noting that the US government initiated this investigation just two weeks after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved BlackRock’s application for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Should the investigation uncover any misconduct by BlackRock, it might pose difficulties for the SEC to officially approve BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF and similar applications from other financial firms in the future.
This development is drawing significant attention as it could have implications for the continued development of Bitcoin-related ETFs managed by BlackRock and other companies in the upcoming period.