Within this record, fixed income ETPs also hit a record, accounting for 29% of total ETP inflows for the first three months of the year.
The total inflows for the industry represented a 50% increase on Q4 2011, which saw net new assets of $44.8bn, and a 57% increase on Q1 2011, which had $42.8bn of inflows.
Fixed income saw $19.5bn of net new business during the quarter, with investors showing a clear preference for investment grade and high yield corporate bonds, BlackRock said.
Jennifer Grancio, managing director at BlackRock, said: "The first quarter of 2012 was very strong for the global ETP industry and global financial markets. Better-than-expected economic figures enticed investors back into the market and encouraged them to consider risk assets.
"The data demonstrates those investors are increasingly choosing ETPs to access new opportunities and express their views."
The appetite for some risk assets started to wane in March, however, with emerging market ETPs seeing $1bn of outflows during the month, despite registering inflows of $13.7bn for the quarter.
BlackRock said the majority of redemptions came from ETPs offering access to individual countries including Taiwan, China, Brazil, Mexico and South Korea, while ETPs offering broad EM exposure attracted modest inflows in March.
