State of Wisconsin Investment Board buys nearly half a million more shares in BlackRock's bitcoin ETF — but dumps all of its GBTC
Correction: Aug. 14, 18:47 UTC: The initial story erroneously said the State of Wisconsin Investment Board purchased nearly $100 million in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust. In fact, that was the value of the total position, which was not much changed from the previous quarter. Corrections throughout below:
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board purchased more of one spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) shares in 2024's second financial quarter while unloading its position in another.
The Board purchased 447,651 shares of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, bringing its total holdings to 2,898,051 shares, worth $98.9 million as of the end of the quarter, according to a 13-F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It also dumped its entire holding of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), worth $63.7 million in the previous quarter.
This is the second consecutive financial quarter in which the Board revealed investments in spot bitcoin ETFs.
Despite the increase in shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust, the drop in price means the dollar value of the position actually decreased by $228,227. Thus, it has lowered its total dollar exposure to spot Bitcoin ETFs by roughly 39% as of the quarter's end.
However, the Board also bought 5,980 shares of the crypto exchange Coinbase, bringing its total holding of the stock to 98,446 shares, worth nearly $21.9 million. Another 77,996 shares of the bitcoin miner Marathon Digital were purchased, bringing total holdings to 115,084 shares, worrh around $2.3 million.
As of Aug. 13, IBIT holds the largest market share among spot bitcoin ETFs at 58.8%, followed by GBTC at 15.2%.
