- In the second quarter, more institutions held and increased their positions in US spot BTC ETFs.
- Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are now the five largest holders of BlackRock’s IBIT.
Institutional investors’ appetite for US spot Bitcoin (BTC) Despite the price declines and volatility of digital assets in the second quarter, ETFs have not slowed down.
According to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, the accumulation trend The successes observed after the launch of products introduced in the first quarter remained “intact” in the second quarter, with the number of owners increasing by 30%.
“I count 1,924 ETF pair holders across all 10 ETFs, up from 1,479 in Q1. That’s a 30% increase; not bad considering prices fell in Q2… Institutional investors continued to adopt Bitcoin ETFs in Q2. The trend is intact.”
Institutions held BTC ETFs despite the dump in the second quarter
Hougan also found that 66% of professional investors who purchased the products in the first quarter either maintained or increased their holdings in the second quarter.
“Of the investors who submitted their shares in the first quarter, 44% increased their position in Bitcoin ETFs in the second quarter, 22% held, 21% reduced their position and 13% exited. That’s a pretty good result, comparable to other ETFs.”
This contradicted the assumption that they would capitulate and dump at the slightest volatility or dip. For comparison, BTC plunged 12% in Q2, from $72,000 to $56,000 before closing above $60,000.
The Bitwise manager then called them “diamond hands” because they stood firm despite the headwinds.
Recent 13F registrations also revealed that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were among the top five holders of BlockRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).
As of June 30, Goldman Sachs had an IBIT of $238.6 million, while Morgan Stanley had $187 million.
It is worth noting that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are among the major wirehouses that were expected to drive the second wave of BTC ETF adoption starting in Q3.
Morgan Stanley has already started recommending BTC ETFs to certain clients, which could lead to further assumption.
The trend could also lead to an increase in institutional investors’ contributions to the BTC ETF’s AUM (assets under management).
In the first quarter, institutions accounted for $3 billion to $5 billion (7% to 10%) of the BTC ETF’s total assets under management, which stood at $50 billion at the time. At the time of writing, the BTC ETF’s total assets under management were $53.6 billion.
Source: Soso Value
Interestingly, the accumulation of BTC ETFs by institutional investors also gained momentum in the third quarter.
According to Glassnode DataLarge ETF wallets have increased their accumulation, a trend that was already seen in March and brought BTC to an all-time high of $73,000.
“Recently, there are signs of a reversal of this trend (supply distribution), especially among the largest wallets, which are often linked to ETFs, and are now returning to accumulation.”
Source: Glassnode
