BlackRock Is Pulling Bitcoin Whales Into Wall Street’s Orbit

Big Bitcoin holders are moving their wealth from the blockchain onto Wall Street’s balance sheet.

A new generation of ETFs is giving the crypto rich a novel way to fold their digital fortunes into the regulated financial system — without selling, and through funds run by big asset managers like BlackRock Inc.

A regulatory change this summer opened the door for large investors to hand their Bitcoin to an ETF in exchange for shares of the fund. It’s called an in-kind transaction and is used across most ETFs, but was only approved for Bitcoin products this July. The process is ...