According to a SEC filing, the Wisconsin State Investment Board (SWIB) held shares in spot bitcoin ETFs totaling $163 million as of the end of March.
The assets in the portfolio include:
- 2,450,400 shares of BlackRock’s IBIT valued at approximately $99.1 million;
- 1,013,000 shares of Grayscale’s GBTC (~$63.7 million);
- securities of various cryptocurrency firms, including Coinbase, Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, Block, Cipher Mining, CleanSpark, and MicroStrategy.
Founded in 1951, the organization manages investments for public pension and other trust funds.
Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas noted on X that SWIB’s interest in this new asset class emerged earlier than expected.
Wow, a state pension bought $IBIT in first quarter. Normally you don’t get these big fish institutions in the 13Fs for a year or so (when the ETF gets more liquidity) but as we’ve seen these are no ordinary launches. Good sign, expect more, as institutions tend to move in herds https://t.co/leKVe2CK1S
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) May 14, 2024
In his view, this is a positive sign, as “institutions tend to move in herds.”
As of the end of 2023, the total assets under management by the Wisconsin State Investment Board amounted to $156 billion.
In May, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robert Mitchnick, predicted a new wave of capital inflow into spot bitcoin ETFs due to institutional investor participation.