Institutional Investment in Bitcoin ETFs

Bitcoin prices may be volatile, but this has not deterred major financial institutions from escalating their investments.

According to data from 13F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), large institutions such as pensions and hedge funds have tripled their holdings in spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during the fourth quarter of 2024.

Institutional investors purchased a staggering $38.7 billion worth of spot bitcoin ETFs, compared to just $12.4 billion in the previous quarter, as per Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan.

Investors managing assets exceeding $100 million are mandated by the SEC to report their holdings quarterly.

Since the launch of bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, numerous hedge funds and pension funds have begun purchasing these financial products. Notably, the State of Wisconsin’s Investment Board increased its stake to over 6 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as of December 31.

Paul Tudor, a billionaire hedge fund investor, nearly doubled his investment in IBIT to 8,048,552 shares from 4,428,230 shares. Additionally, Corvex Management, led by investor Keith Meister, reported holding over 1 million shares in IBIT at the end of the fourth quarter.

Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, noted that IBIT currently boasts 1,100 institutional holders that have reported their stakes via 13F filings. He remarked that typically, newly launched ETFs have under 10 holders. “No way to track, but my guess is the record for first year prior to this was probably like 350 institutional holders for new ETFs,” Balchunas concluded.