---
title: "BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF barely beat the S&P 500 after putting investors through a 53% crash"
url: https://thecoingazette.com/blackrocks-bitcoin-etf-barely-beat-the-sp-500-after-putting-investors-through-a-53-crash/
date: 2026-09-02
modified: 2026-09-02
lang: en
author: "Coin Gazette Editorial"
description: "BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has narrowly outperformed the S&P 500 since launch despite subjecting investors to a drawdown nearly three times as deep. The iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT,..."
categories:
  - "Analysis"
  - "Bitcoin"
  - "Blackrock"
  - "BTC"
  - "ETF"
  - "Featured"
  - "Trading"
  - "Vanguard"
word_count: 478
---

# BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF barely beat the S&P 500 after putting investors through a 53% crash

[BlackRock’s](https://cryptoslate.com/companies/blackrock/) [Bitcoin](https://cryptoslate.com/coins/bitcoin/) exchange-traded fund (ETF) has narrowly outperformed the S&P 500 since launch despite subjecting investors to a drawdown nearly three times as deep.

The [iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT,](https://cryptoslate.com/products/ishares-bitcoin-trust/) returned 67.74% from its Jan. 11, 2024 debut through Aug. 31, compared with 66.14% for Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF, or VOO, on a total-return [basis](https://totalrealreturns.com/n/IBIT,VOO) that reinvests dividends.

That left IBIT ahead by just 1.60 percentage points after Bitcoin surged to a record high and then gave back much of those gains during a prolonged downturn.

“Hard to believe IBIT is beating VOO since inception but it’s true,” Bloomberg senior ETF analyst [Eric Balchunas](https://cryptoslate.com/people/eric-balchunas/) wrote Sept. 1, noting that the gap remained narrow.

Balchunas compared IBIT’s path toward a roughly 70% gain to the El Toro roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure, while describing VOO’s advance as a walk in the park. He said the result was especially surprising given the bearish mood that dominated Bitcoin from October through July.

## IBIT’s narrow lead came with a 53% drawdown

The similarity in headline returns disappears once you consider the path investors took to get there.

IBIT’s worst peak-to-trough decline reached 53.30% between Oct. 6, 2025, and June 30, 2026. VOO’s maximum drawdown over the comparison period was 18.69%, from Feb. 19 through April 8, 2025.

![Comparison of IBIT and VOO showing 67.74% versus 66.14% total returns, 53.30% versus 18.69% maximum drawdowns, and their Sept. 1 moves.](https://cryptoslate.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/exec-c937384a-48a3-4aa8-9108-8af1a962482c.png)

Investors who bought both funds when IBIT launched therefore ended Aug. 31 with broadly similar cumulative returns, but Bitcoin ETF holders had to withstand a decline of more than half from the fund’s peak.

[Bitcoin’s price history](https://cryptoslate.com/bitcoin-breaks-66000-but-4-key-signals-show-this-rally-is-far-from-normal/) helps explain much of that gap.

BTC traded near $47,000 when US spot ETFs debuted in January 2024 and later surged to a record high of around $126,000 in 2025 following Donald Trump's election victory. However, its value then fell as low as roughly $58,000 this year before recovering to around $77,000 as of press time.

That reversal erased much of the performance advantage IBIT had built during [Bitcoin’s run to record highs.](https://cryptoslate.com/bitcoins-80000-rally-just-flipped-from-short-squeeze-to-long-squeeze/)

[

Related Reading

### Bitcoin's first institutional bear market is starting to take shape and draining liquidity

**

](https://cryptoslate.com/bitcoins-first-institutional-bear-market-is-starting-to-take-shape-and-draining-liquidity/)

Nevertheless, that volatility has not stopped Wall Street from building substantially deeper infrastructure around the asset. BlackRock has recommended a 2% BTC allocation for investors seeking diversification and long-term return potential.

Meanwhile, this comparison also pits the two funds at very different stages of maturity.

[IBIT, now the largest spot Bitcoin ETF,](https://cryptoslate.com/investors-just-moved-7-billion-into-bitcoin-and-gold-in-five-days-to-escape-an-accelerating-dollar-crisis/) manages about $60 billion in assets and has accumulated roughly $63 billion of inflows since launch, giving BlackRock’s less-than-three-year-old product a scale few new ETFs have reached.

VOO remains in another league. The Vanguard fund, which tracks the S&P 500 and provides broad exposure to large-cap US equities, crossed $1 trillion in net assets in June 2026, becoming the first ETF to reach that threshold.

The post [BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF barely beat the S&P 500 after putting investors through a 53% crash](https://cryptoslate.com/blackrocks-bitcoin-etf-barely-beat-the-sp-500-after-putting-investors-through-a-53-crash/) appeared first on [CryptoSlate](https://cryptoslate.com/).