International hedge fund Millennium Management revealed that it owns nearly $2 billion in…
International hedge fund Millennium Management revealed that it owned nearly $2 billion worth of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as of the first quarter of this year.
Millennium held a total of $1.94 billion across five spot bitcoin ETFs as of March 31, according to its 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The hedge fund diversified its holdings of spot Bitcoin ETF products across the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB), Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF (FBTC).
BlackRock’s Bitcoin fund was Millenium’s largest allocation, with more than $844 million invested. Fidelity Fund came in second with just over $806 million in FBTC shares held by the hedge fund.
Describing Millennium as the “king” of Bitcoin ETF holders, Eric Balchunas, a Bloomberg ETF analyst, noted that the company has 200 times the exposure of new ETF holders in the top 500.
Additionally, the majority — nearly 60% — of new spot buyers of Bitcoin ETFs were comprised of investment advisory firms while about 25% were hedge funds, Plachunas said.
The recent wave of mandatory 13F filings has put a spotlight on who is buying Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, something that Matt Hogan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, says has made him “increasingly optimistic about Bitcoin’s future.”
Related: New Vanguard President Says Bitcoin ETF Not on the Table: Report
In a May 13 note to investors, Hogan wrote that the quarterly 13F filings shared important details about who is actually buying these funds, adding that the huge scope of institutional interest in these products was a good sign of Bitcoin moving forward.
“The big news is that a lot of professional investors own Bitcoin ETFs,” Hogan wrote, drawing particular attention to the presence of firms like Hightower Advisors, Bracebridge Capital, and Cambridge Investment Research as holders of Bitcoin products.
“By the May 15 application deadline, I suspect we may end up with over 700 professional firms and total assets under management approaching $5 billion,” Hogan added.
On May 14, Wisconsin revealed it had a total investment amount of $164 million across two funds provided by Grayscale and BlackRock.
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