CoinGecko: Bitcoin funds hold 3.8% of the Bitcoin supply

In various types of exchange-traded funds and the Grayscale Trust hold 793 034 BTC (~$34 billion) or 3.8% of the total Bitcoin supply, according to CoinGecko.

Ever wondered how many Bitcoins are in ETFs?

Our study shows that ETFs hold around 793,034 $BTC in total worldwide, representing 3.8% of the maximum 21 million Bitcoin supply.

Read the full study: https://t.co/5Xjmtw9ibm pic.twitter.com/oAAW04jEYL

— CoinGecko (@coingecko) December 26, 2023

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust’s share in the overall figure stands at 3% — 622,657 BTC. The OTC-traded vehicle is the largest holder of the primary cryptocurrency. By comparison, the actively building up reserves in digital gold company MicroStrategy led by Michael Saylor trails by more than a threefold, owning 174 530 BTC.

In October 2021, Grayscale Investments filed for conversion of the Bitcoin Trust into a spot ETF. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) repeatedly delayed a decision on the application and ultimately rejected it in June 2022.

As CEO Michael Sonnenshein had promised, Grayscale filed a lawsuit against the regulator. In August 2023, the court granted the motion of the company, obliging the SEC to reconsider the denial of the product registration.

As of this writing, Grayscale awaits the Commission’s decision, as do other applicants to launch spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. such as BlackRock, VanEck, Invesco, Fidelity Investments and WisdomTree.  

In recent months a number of firms have engaged in active consultations with the regulator and amended documents to meet the proposed requirements. According to media reports, the SEC set the deadline for submitting final proposals on December 29. 

Industry experts anticipate that the agency will broadly approve products around January 8-10.

Poorly regulated, the United States has since October 2021 traded only Bitcoin futures ETFs, while regulators in other countries such as Canada or Brazil opened the door to spot products long ago.

Investors Prefer Derivatives

As of December 22, bitcoin-only ETFs held a total of 144,222 BTC. Multicurrency ETFs accounted for 26,156 BTC.

Fourteen spot funds in the ranking held 38.5% of total assets, while only six futures-based funds accounted for 61.6%.

«This may indicate that traditional financial institutions are leaning toward derivatives for investing in Bitcoin, rather than the cryptocurrency itself,» CoinGecko experts suggested.

The leading ETF is the futures-based Bitcoin Tracker One from the European provider XBT, with total assets of $7.11 billion. The product launched in Sweden in 2015.

In second place is the similar Bitcoin Strategy ETF from the American firm ProShares — $1.64 billion. Third is the spot Bitcoin ETF Purpose Bitcoin ETF with $1.55 billion.

Analysts noted a substantial difference in the amount of Bitcoins held by exchange-traded funds even within the top-20. For example, the Bitcoin Carbon Neutral product from Valour, not in the list, holds only 2 BTC compared with 35,523 BTC in the Purpose Bitcoin ETF.

In December, Hong Kong authorities signaled readiness to approve spot Bitcoin ETFs.