‘It’s absurd’: From Morgan Stanley to the state of Wisconsin, here’s who just poured billions into Bitcoin ETFs

The 13Fs are out: institutional investment managers have filed their quarterly reports with the Security and Exchange Commission which disclose first quarter stock holdings. For the 10 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds that began trading in January, this is the first official look at which has added significant exposure to the original cryptocurrency.

Some 944 companies with a size of at least $100 million reported investing in the sector. AND F, analyzes Bitwise deposits. In comparison, this is 10 times the number of investors in gold ETFs. The issuer that arouses the most interest is black rockof the IBIT, which added 414 institutional investors.

Collectively, professional investors hold over $10.7 billion in exposure. In total, the 10 funds had about $54 billion in assets under management as of May 20, according to CoinGlass. data.

“There were more people than expected,” said Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg. Fortune. “It’s absurd. It’s crazy. A good first season of 13F would be maybe 10. That’s how hard it is. And so to have 414 is just crazy.”

Hedge funds dominated the list. Of these, the largest to acquire shares was Millennium Management, a New York-based fund that invested $2 billion in several ETFs as of March 31. Also among the funds is Boston-based hedge fund Bracebridge Capital, which holds $262 million. of shares in the ARK 21Shares ETF and $81 million in IBIT. Bracebridge’s clients include institutional investors such as endowments of Yale University and Princeton University.

“I’ve been saying for a while that among the 100 largest hedge funds in the world, we’ve seen about a third of them are active in the space (Bitcoin ETF), but seeing is believing,” Brett Tejpaul , head of institutional trading at Coinbasesaid last week to Fortuneof the conference on the future of finance. “Being able to look at these documents and see very recognizable names owning very significant amounts of ETFs is a great moment. It’s been quite a journey.”

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The number of hedge funds holding stakes also exceeded Balchunas’ expectations. He believes some of the interest may reflect commercial intentions that include arbitrage: “You can do a lot of arbitrage, but it’s a good thing, it helps everyone get a better deal.” »

“Surprised to already see a pension”

A filing from the Wisconsin State Investment Board, which manages $156 billion in state pensions, disclosed IBIT purchases worth more than $99 million and $63 million additional in Shades of greyBitcoin’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

“I was surprised to see a pension already,” Balchunas said. “I didn’t think we would see pensions or endowments until at least the second quarter, or even until a year. These are the slowest institutions to evolve.”

The big banks have also dipped their toes in the water.

Several so-called global systemically important banks, or G-SIBs, have disclosed their investments in products, including Royal Bank of Canada, Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, and UBS. This list also includes Morgan Stanleywhich revealed a $269.9 million investment in GBTC, making it one of the fund’s largest holders, following a billion-dollar investment from Susquehanna International Group, a quantitative trading firm, according to Fintel data.

The overall group of investors (pensions, hedge funds and registered investment advisors) jumping into the space, said Nathan Geraci, president of The ETF Store, “is very notable given that these investors tend to act a lot more methodically when it comes to new investments. products, through very rigorous due diligence processes.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com