State of Wisconsin increases exposure to Bitcoin in Q2 via BlackRock ETF

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) reported owning 2,898,051 shares of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as of June 30, according to an SEC filing.

The shares are worth nearly $99 million, based on the average BTC price during the second quarter.

Notably, the SWIB raised its exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs from a previously reported 2.5 million shares at the end of March. Additionally, the filing shows that SWIB offloaded the 1 million shares of Grayscale’s GBTC it held in the first quarter.

SWIB is an independent state agency responsible for managing the assets of the Wisconsin Retirement System, the State Investment Fund (SIF), and other state funds.

On July 26, the State of Michigan Retirement System reported its holdings of 110,000 shares in ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), equivalent to nearly $6.6 million.

Although it only represents 0.004% of their $143.9 billion in assets under management revealed in December 2023, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted that “it’s a start.”

Moreover, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop publicly spoke about the intention of the city’s pension fund to make Bitcoin investments through ETFs.

Bitcoin ETFs traded in the US registered inflows between Aug. 12 and Aug. 13, amounting to nearly $67 million, according to Farside Investors’ data.

Notably, the outflows from Grayscale’s GBTC grew from $11.8 million on Aug. 12 to $28.6 million on Aug. 13. Nevertheless, the inflows registered by BlackRock’s IBIT soared from $13.4 million to $34.6 million in the same period. 

Moreover, Bitwise’s BITB and ARK 21Shares’ ARKB also registered outflows of $17.1 million and $6.1 million, respectively, in this period. Although BITB is sitting at a net outflow of $600,000 so far this week, ARKB shows a positive netflow of $29.3 million.

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