Institutional investors held 25.4% of the assets under management (AUM) of spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as of Dec. 31 — totaling $26.8 billion.

K33 Research head of research Vetle Lunde shared that the percentage of Bitcoin ETF AUM held by institutions grew 113% between the third and fourth quarters of 2024. 

Additionally, the AUM ratio held by institutions increased by 4.1% quarterly, as the total amount jumped 69% to $78.8 billion at the end of the fourth quarter.

According to Lunde, the number of investors exposed to Bitcoin via ETFs reached 1,576 in the last quarter, a 37.4% quarterly leap. Meanwhile, the yearly leap was 68.2%.

IBIT dominance

Lunde’s data also revealed that institutional interest in BlackRock’s IBIT grew over 4x in 2024.

Institutions reported $16 billion in IBIT shares at the end of the fourth quarter of last year, compared to less than $4 billion via hares at the end of the first quarter. Most of the growth was recorded between the third and fourth quarters.

Recently, Mubadala Investment Company, one of Abu Dhabi’s largest sovereign wealth funds, reported nearly $437 million in Bitcoin exposure through IBIT at the end of the fourth quarter. 

Furthermore, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) increased 110% of its BTC investment via IBIT in the same period, surpassing $321 million. SWIB realized the shares from other Bitcoin ETFs, such as Grayscale’s GBTC, and as of Dec. 31, only held exposure through BlackRock’s IBIT.

Fidelity’s FBTC also expanded considerably, nearly 100% quarterly. However, the total AUM of institutional holdings is still around $5 billion.

According to Bold Report data, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF has nearly $56.4 billion in AUM, while the total AUM of all other US-traded spot Bitcoin ETFs combined is $56.9 billion.

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