Key Points
- Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted diverse investors and experienced high trading volume in Q1.
- Despite high trading volume, long-term institutional holdings remained a small portion of total assets under management.
The first quarter of the year marked the end of 13F filings, providing an overview of the major players who had invested in spot Bitcoin ETFs and their holdings at the end of March. These quarterly reports are submitted by institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in equity assets under management.
Investors and Trading Volume
The first quarter saw a diverse group of investors buying spot Bitcoin ETFs issued by financial giants like Grayscale, BlackRock, and Fidelity. Interestingly, most of the trading volume during this period was driven by short-term trades due to superior liquidity.
As of the last trading day of the first quarter, spot Bitcoin ETFs had generated $182 billion in cumulative trading volume. However, a small portion of this volume likely came from institutions holding longer positions.
Assets Under Management
According to the 13F filings, the total known assets under management across all spot Bitcoin ETFs was just $15.4 billion. This represents a limited amount of the $62.2 billion in total AUM for the eleven Bitcoin exchange-traded funds available to investors.
Despite Grayscale’s ETF being the largest in terms of assets under management, the fund has lost billions of dollars since launch, while BlackRock’s fund has grown to more than $17 billion in AUM.
Several hundred financial institutions, including major players like Morgan Stanley, purchased shares in ETFs tracking the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. This diversity of institutions was higher than expected, with a significant portion of the largest hedge funds in America also investing.
Noteworthy Investors
Among the more interesting investors were Bracebridge Capital, which manages the endowments of Yale University and Princeton University, and reported owning more than $400 million in spot Bitcoin ETFs at the end of the first quarter. Hightower Advisors, the No. 2 RIA firm in the U.S., owned $68 million in Bitcoin ETF shares.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board reported owning more than $160 million of the Bitcoin-based funds. JP Morgan also reported owning shares in spot Bitcoin ETFs, despite its CEO, Jamie Dimon, being consistently critical of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin ETFs: A ‘Hot Sauce’ Investment
Since launching in January, the Bitcoin ETFs have generated significant trading volume compared to other previously launched exchange-traded funds. Many traditional financial institutions appear to have bought into the Bitcoin craze in their own way.
The excitement around Bitcoin and its potential upside isn’t enough to justify what has so far transpired. There are plenty of other “hot sauce” style investments available to investors. Bitcoin’s underlying story about hedging the devaluation of the dollar makes it interesting.