Institutional ownership of Bitcoin ETFs reached 24% last quarter

Despite the decline in Bitcoin prices and the challenging market environment, institutional ownership in US spot Bitcoin ETFs increased last quarter.

According to analysts at HC Wainwright, institutional ownership of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs rose to 24% by the end of Q2 2024. This is up from 21.4% in the previous quarter, according to newly released 13-F filings and data aggregated by Coinbase.

This growth occurred despite a challenging market environment, where the total assets under management of these ETFs fell by 13% from the previous quarter to $51.8 billion due to the decline in Bitcoin (BTC) prices.

Source: Farside Investors and Coin Metrics. Chart source: HC Wainwright

The most notable new institutional investors include Goldman Sachs, with $412 million in ETF holdings, and Morgan Stanley, with $188 million, although some of those assets are likely held for clients.

Bitcoin ETF inflows

Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw significant inflows of $61.98 million on August 19, led by BlackRock’s IBIT with $92.7 million. This was despite some ETFs experiencing outflows, such as Bitwise’s BITB and Invesco Galaxy’s BTCO. Total cumulative inflows for Bitcoin ETFs now exceed $17.4 billion.

Investment advisors now hold 36.6% of their total institutional holdings in spot Bitcoin ETFs, up from 29.8% in Q1, while hedge fund holdings fell to 30.5% from 37.7%.

Despite these market fluctuations, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of $2.4 billion during the quarter, indicating continued interest from institutional investors in the crypto space.