One of the largest retirement funds in the United States, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), purchased BlackRock’s IBIT and Grayscale’s GBTC in the first quarter of this year, with a total investment of $164 million. In response to this, David Krause, a finance professor at Marquette University, believes that there is great potential for future investment growth.
In the first quarter of this year, over 900 large institutions in the United States disclosed their investments in Bitcoin spot ETFs in their holdings reports submitted to the SEC. Among them is the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), which manages over $156 billion and is rated as one of the most financially sound funds in the United States. As of March 31st, they have purchased shares of BlackRock’s IBIT and Grayscale’s GBTC worth a total of $164 million.
Regarding the operation of this well-known retirement fund, David Krause, a finance professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, stated in an interview that this news shocked the entire investment industry because large institutions, especially retirement funds, usually do not invest in recently launched ETFs like Bitcoin spot ETFs, especially considering that the investment board of this state has always been in a leading position.
He said that although SWIB’s investment in Bitcoin ETFs accounts for only about 0.1% of its total assets under management, Krause believes that this investment is just a “trial” and he expects SWIB to increase this amount, which is also expected to attract other institutions to enter the market. Krause believes that Bitcoin ETFs can increase portfolio diversification as they do not fluctuate in sync with stocks and bonds, providing good diversification effects. Like all new technologies, they have a high potential return. Additionally, due to the limited supply of Bitcoin, it can also serve as a tool to combat inflation.
According to K33 Research, as of the end of the first quarter, 937 asset management institutions have invested in US Bitcoin spot ETFs, with a total position size of $11.06 billion, accounting for 18.7% of the BTC ETF asset management size. Among the various ETFs, GBTC is the most favored product by these institutions, with a total amount of $4.38 billion, followed by IBIT with $3.23 billion and FBTC with $2.1 billion.
On May 28th, IBIT’s size briefly surpassed GBTC, becoming the world’s largest Bitcoin spot ETF with a holding of nearly $20 billion. In the first quarter of this year, a total of 414 large institutions invested in IBIT. In addition, IBIT successfully attracted $20 billion in funds in just 137 days, becoming the fastest-growing ETF in history.
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