As of Wednesday, bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) collectively held 192,255 bitcoin, surpassing MicroStrategy’s holdings, which makes MicroStrategy the largest publicly traded holder of the cryptocurrency.
In the latest development, spot bitcoin ETFs, excluding Grayscale’s GBTC, added nearly 5,000 more tokens to their reserves on Wednesday, bringing their total to over 192,000 BTC. This surpasses MicroStrategy’s total holdings of 190,000 bitcoin as of January’s end.
Despite being on the market for less than a month, these ETFs have already attracted billions of dollars from investors seeking exposure to bitcoin without directly purchasing and storing it. On Wednesday alone, these ETFs witnessed over $1 billion in inflows, as reported by Bloomberg Intelligence.
It’s worth noting that Grayscale’s GBTC, which transitioned from being a closed-end trust to a spot ETF, began trading alongside other spot products. Previously, GBTC held around 630,000 bitcoin. However, over the past month, tokens have been exiting GBTC, with the fund now holding just over 470,000 bitcoin.
Markus Levin, head of operations at California tech startup XY Labs, and co-founder of XYO, commented on the distribution of bitcoin holdings, stating that while concentration among certain entities like MicroStrategy and ETFs exists, it doesn’t pose a significant risk to the Bitcoin Network.
With a maximum supply of 21 million bitcoin according to the cryptocurrency’s code, ETF issuers (excluding GBTC), including industry giants like BlackRock, Fidelity, and VanEck, now collectively hold approximately 1.8% of all bitcoin. Including GBTC’s 470,000 tokens, this percentage increases to 4%.
