SEC Filings Reveal Billions of Institutional Investment in Bitcoin

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The crypto community isn’t very accustomed to getting good news from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But yesterday, a quarterly report filed by investment managers to the SEC to disclose their U.S. equity holdings unveiled news that has Bitcoin Bulls buzzing on X and YouTube.

The release of first-quarter 13F filings on Wednesday revealed that over 600 firms have exposure to spot Bitcoin ETFs, with the investments totaling in the billions. According to the report, investment advisory firms made up nearly 60% of new spot Bitcoin ETF buyers, and hedge funds another 25%.

Leading the charge is Millennial Management, one of the world’s largest hedge funds in terms of assets under management, which revealed it holds nearly $2 billion across five spot Bitcoin ETFs. Its largest investment is over $844 million in BlackRock’s ETF (ITIF), and over $806 million in Fidelity’s fund (FBTC), making Millennial Management the largest holder of IBIT and FBTC ETFs.

And it’s not just investor managers that are racing to increase their exposure to spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Banks and even U.S. states are rushing in on the action. On Tuesday, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board disclosed a $161 million allocation to BlackRock’s IBIT ($100 million) and Grayscale’s GBTC ($61 million). JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and the Royal Bank of Canada, also recently revealed their exposure to spot Bitcoin ETFs.

On top of the revelations from the SEC filings, Bitcoin ETFs saw $303 million in total inflow on Wednesday. Grayscale, which has been selling Bitcoin since the ETFs launched, had an inflow of $27 million yesterday.

The filings point to mainstream adoption of Bitcoin in traditional financial markets, and unsurprisingly, Bitcoin’s price appears to be reacting positively. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was hovering around $65,000, up from $61,262 on May 14th.

Some believe the data could trigger a chain reaction, generating FOMO among institutional investors, while others think that may already be happening. Either way, thanks to Bitcoin ETFs, the days of Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy being the only major institutional investor in Bitcoin are long gone. Now, it appears everyone wants a piece of the action.

Bitcoin Ordinals Are (Also) on Fire

The news of institutional investment in Bitcoin, ETF inflows, and the recent Halving that took place on April 19th, all leans bullish for the world’s most popular crypto. At press time, Bitcoin was up around 140% over the last year, and many are hoping the price will hit all-time highs in the weeks or months ahead.

But the price of Bitcoin isn’t the only thing that’s been rising recently. Ordinals, NFTs inscribed on the Bitcoin blockchain, have also been soaring in popularity. In fact, according to data from CryptoSlam, Bitcoin is the leading blockchain for NFTs over the last thirty days.

Here are some of the top stories about Bitcoin Ordinals over the past year:

Bitcoin Ordinals have expanded the capabilities of what’s possible on Bitcoin just as institutional investors are beginning to view Bitcoin as a fundamental asset for their portfolio. At Rarity Sniper, we don’t like to speculate, and we know that anything can happen in the crypto space. But right now, things are certainly looking bullish for Bitcoin.