The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) exited its entire position in the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) during the first quarter of 2025.
According to a recent U.S. SEC filing, the board sold all 6,060,351 IBIT shares, previously valued at approximately $355.6 million. The move follows an earlier decision to fully liquidate its $63.7 million stake in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
The filing, submitted on May 15, showed that SWIB reported no holdings in any spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds as of the end of March. The asset manager, which oversaw more than $166 billion in total assets at the close of 2024, had previously shifted its entire GBTC exposure to IBIT in the last quarter of that year.
Institutional activity reflects shifting market sentiment
At the same time, other big institutional investors made changes to their holdings in Bitcoin ETFs. Prices falling by 12% in Q1 made a lot of investors decrease their investments. Millennium Management sold 41% of its Invesco Bitcoin ETF shares and no longer holds shares of the ETF. The firm held on to 81.4% of its stake in IBIT while reducing it by 15.6%. Despite these sell-offs, Millennium put more money into other Bitcoin products such as ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF and Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust.
Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala investment fund bought more shares and owned 8.7 million shares of IBIT, which were worth over $408 million by the end of March. Brown University joined the cryptocurrency ETF market for the first time, buying a 4.9 million dollar share of IBIT. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan explained that the decrease in ETF positions came as the premium on Bitcoin futures collapsed, limiting returns from popular basis trading strategies. He noted that this shift reached its lowest point in late March.
ETF flows swing sharply in May
Data from Farside showed a sharp reversal in net flows for spot Bitcoin ETFs between May 13 and May 14. On May 13, the funds saw outflows totaling $91.4 million, all attributed to Fidelity’s FBTC. No other issuers recorded positive inflows that day.
The next day, $319.5 million of net inflows were recorded. The largest sum came from BlackRock’s IBIT, totaling $232.9 million, and FBTC with $36.1 million came in second. Furthermore, ETFs like BITB, ARKB, and BRRR all experienced positive changes. Grayscale’s GBTC had an inflow of $35.2 million after constantly reporting outflows.