It wouldn’t make sense for them to hard fork. It would cause real bitcoins value to drop and their new token ETF wouldn’t catch up to the value their Bitcoin ETF was already at for a loooong time. There would also be shareholder suits galore because they would be tanking their own investment vehicle. And as mentioned, the new token would be a security being issued by them outside of the ETF which destroys the entire purpose of Bitcoin in the first place.

They included that provision (which is just boiler plate legal language) because they’re aware of the block size wars, and are protecting against people coming in and suing with CSW-esq lawsuits that claim “well BSV is actually Bitcoin so the fact you are claiming to be selling a Bitcoin ETF is a false misrepresentation”.

I’ll never say never, but IMO basic logic says black rock has no interest in attempting their own hard fork, financially and legally. It’s game theory, especially with the likelihood there will be several other ETFs approved. If they wanted their own coin, they’d just make it right now and start an etf with it fresh to avoid the hassle.