One US state is revealing large holdings in two significant Bitcoin (BTC) trusts.
New 13-F Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reveal that The State of Wisconsin Investment Board has BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) holdings with Blackrock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) totaling near $163 million.
IBIT and GBTC are the top two Bitcoin-based ETFs by trading volume.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board is a state agency managing investments for public retirement and trust funds. It has diversified investments, including cryptocurrency, Coinbase, Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, Block, Cipher Mining, Cleanspark, Microstrategy and other traditional financial vehicles.
The investment was made before March 15, 2024, which is the deadline for institutional investors to disclose their Q1 holdings.
Says senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas of the recent revelation,
“Wow, a state pension bought IBIT in first quarter. Normally you don’t get these big fish institutions in the 13Fs for a year or so (when the ETF gets more liquidity) but as we’ve seen these are no ordinary launches. Good sign, expect more, as institutions tend to move in herds.”
At time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $61,301, down 2.5% in the last 24 hours.
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