BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), one of the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds approved by the SEC back in January, has seen its BTC holdings briefly surpass those of software firm MicroStrategy last week, before the Nasdaq-listed business intelligence firm bought more.
According to a Friday disclosure, first reported on by ETF.com, IBIT now holds 195,985 BTC. MicroStrategy, which recently acquired an additional 12,000 BTC, currently holds 205,000. MicroStrategy’s chairman, Michael Saylor, has been a vocal proponent of Bitcoin in recent years.
The price of Bitcoin skyrocketed over 70% this year to trade around the $72,000 mark – a new high for the flagship cryptocurrency – amid growing demand from the approved spot Bitcoin ETFs, which have attracted over $10 billion in net inflows, ahead of its upcoming halving event.
To meet investor demand and maintain liquidity, IBIT has been purchasing billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin as its assets under management have ballooned. However, IBIT’s holdings remain dwarfed by those of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which boasts 400,165 BTC under management.
GBTC was already the largest Bitcoin fund before converting into a spot Bitcoin ETF, and despite its large amount of assets it has been experiencing significant outflows – to the tune of $10 billion so far – after the conversion.
In contrast, the ten new spot products launched in January now hold a combined $55 billion in assets under management (AUM), with inflows being led by both IBIT and Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF.
On the microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter), Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted he hadn’t anticipated IBIT and FBTC ranking third and fourth in year-to-date flows among all ETFs.
As reported, cryptocurrency investment products saw record weekly inflows of $2.7 billion over the past week, with Bitcoin and Solana investment products seeing more inflows than others, while Ethereum products saw outflows of $2.1 million.
Featured image via Unsplash.
