Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas didn’t mince his words when contextualizing how impressive he finds the early performance of BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF.
BlackRock’s ETF “ended up with 414 reported holders in its first 13F season, which is mind boggling, blows away record,” Balchunas posted to X on Thursday. “Even having 20 holders as a newborn is bfd, highly rare.”
For a month and a half, 13F filings for financial institutions — those required to report their holdings as of the end of the first quarter of 2024 — have been trickling in, providing insight into which organizations bought spot bitcoin ETF shares and exactly how much each purchased.
BlackRock’s ETF, ticker symbol IBIT, has been the most popular in terms of growth, swelling from zero dollars in assets under management as of its January launch to $16.65 billion in AUM as of Thursday, according to The Block Data Dashboard.
With $844 million worth of BlackRock’s ETF, Millennium Management led the way in terms of the firm that owns the most IBIT shares. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors and Aristeia Capital followed with $248 million and $163 million, respectively, according to Fintel data.
