Asset managers Goldman Sachs, Capula Management and Avenir Tech emerged as the biggest buyers of Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the second quarter of 2024, according to an analysis by CoinShares Research shared with Cointelegraph.
According to CoinShares’ review of quarterly 13F disclosures filed by large fund managers, the three investment firms collectively bought nearly $1.3 billion worth of BTC ETF shares.
Since launching in January, Bitcoin ETFs have seen enormous demand, aided in part by adoption by large financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley.
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“We have more than 15 billion inflows. That’s more than three times the largest one-year inflow of any ETF ever in the history of ETFs,” Dave LaValle, Grayscale’s global head of ETFs, said on Aug. 12. “So we’re talking about massive, massive adoption.”
CoinShares said Capula had bought BTC shares worth approximately $470 million since March, with Goldman Sachs and Avenir buying $419 million and $388 million, respectively. It added that fund managers Galacia Asset Management and DE Shaw purchased $307 million and $174 million worth of shares, respectively.
Almost half of Avenir’s holdings now consist of BTC funds. The largest outflows came from crypto-native hedge fund Digital Currency Group, which sold $732 million in shares since March, according to CoinShares.
Overall, hedge funds hold the largest portfolio allocations of Bitcoin, averaging 2.2%, according to the crypto researcher. Private equity firms also hold large allocations, averaging some 1.4%. Adoption is still negligible among banks and pension funds, with 0% and 0.1% portfolio allocations, respectively.
Ongoing adoption by established wealth managers is likely to result in larger allocations to cryptocurrency ETFs over time, even among more conservative institutions such as pension funds, Katalin Tischhauser, head of investment research at crypto bank Sygnum, told Cointelegraph.
“A lot of huge investors, like sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, are poised to invest in ETFs,” Tischhauser said. “Crypto will eventually become a part of model portfolios, with products tailored to different risk profiles.”
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