According to a previous report by Zombit, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosed in a document in May that the Wisconsin Retirement Fund purchased IBIT from BlackRock and GBTC from Grayscale in the first quarter. As of March 31, the holdings of these two ETFs were valued at approximately $164 million. This news shocked the industry at the time, as large institutions, especially pension funds, typically do not invest in newly issued ETFs like Bitcoin spot ETFs.
David Krause, a member of the state’s investment committee and a finance professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, recently stated in an interview with local media in Wisconsin: “As of the end of 2023, SWIB manages assets of approximately $156 billion. According to information on its website, this means that its holdings in Bitcoin ETFs account for only about 0.1% of its investment portfolio.” However, Krause stated that this investment is just a “test” and he expects SWIB to increase its investment amount, with other retirement funds eventually following suit.
In the first three months of this year, nearly 500 institutional investors revealed that they hold Bitcoin spot ETFs. As of March 31, the largest owner was the hedge fund Millennium Management, which disclosed holding assets worth $2 billion across multiple funds, accounting for approximately 3% of its total assets under management.
