Inside the 13F filings of Bitcoin ETFs Q1 2025, the institutional investors rebalance

The latest SEC 13-F filings mark the first quarter-over-quarter decline in professional holdings since the launch of the US spot bitcoin ETFs in January 2024. Filers, who must report their securities ownership when managing over $100 million, reported $21.2 billion in Bitcoin ETF holdings at the end of Q1 2025, down 23% from $27.4 billion in Q4 2024. Relatively, this is a sharper drop than the overall US Bitcoin ETF market, which declined by 12%, ending Q1 with $92.3 billion in total AUM. 

It’s not all doom and gloom, especially considering that bitcoin’s price fell 11% quarter-over-quarter, meaning a strong part of the AUM decline is attributable to market price rather than a reduction in position size. These filings actually tell us a story that is unintuitive based on the surface level numbers.

Although, the overall picture remains the same as last time: the US bitcoin ETFs are proving to be a very attractive vehicle for exposure, the majority of ownership remains with retail investors or smaller firms, and we still expect, in due time, larger firms with longer time horizons will allocate.

Professional investors maintain significant market share despite drawdown

After likely tactical selling, institutional investors retain a 22.9% share of total US Bitcoin ETF AUM, down decently from 26.3% in Q4 2024.

Holdings by institution type show strategic rebalancing

Looking at BTC-denominated holdings allows us to strip out price effects and isolate changes in position sizing. Advisor holdings increased in BTC terms quarter-over-quarter, while hedge funds cut exposure by nearly one-third, signaling, in our view, less short-term tactical exposure and more longer-term strategic ownership. The rotation suggests hedge funds took profits — reasonably so, given the rise in bitcoin price from the 60s up to 100k — and advisors are steadily reallocating client portfolios toward a bitcoin exposure. Another, and perhaps the main, contributor to the hedge fund reduction is the unwinding of the basis trade, a common arbitrage strategy that became less attractive as futures premiums compressed.

When segmenting filers by type, we found advisors regained the leading position, holding 50% of all 13-F Bitcoin ETF assets. Hedge funds followed holding 32%, this is a significant decrease from the previous quarter’s 41%. As expected, advisors significantly outnumbered other institutions, accounting for 81% of the total number of 13-F filers.

Notable Investment Increases:

• Blackrock, Inc (Investment Advisors): Increased their position from 0 to $217m 

• Goldman Sachs (Investment Advisors): Increased their position by $206m

• Macquarie Group (Investment Advisors): Increased their position by $136m

• Brown University (Endowment): Increased their position from 0 to $5m

• Emirate of Abu Dhabi Mubadala Fund (Government): Increased their position to $411 million

Notable Investment Decreases

• Wisconsin Board (Pension Fund): Decreased their position from $323m to 0

• Millennium Management (Hedge Fund): Decreased their position by $980m

• Bracebridge Capital (Investment Advisors): Decreased their position from $335m to 0

• Van Eck Associates Corp (Investment Advisors): Decreased their position by $349m 

• Jericho Capital Asset Management (Hedge Fund): Decreased their position by $380m

Three dominant products have come to be institutional favorites, accounting for more than 85% of all 13F filer holdings:

• IBIT (iShares Bitcoin Trust): Remains the top institutional choice, with filers holding $12.7 billion (31.5% of its total AUM).

• FBTC (Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund): Filers hold $3.6 billion, representing 25.5% of its AUM.

• GBTC (Grayscale Bitcoin Trust): Despite losing ground, it remains competitive with $2.2 billion from filers, or 13.1% of its AUM.

Corporates accumulate while financial institutions strategically reposition

The bitcoin adoption story this past quarter has mainly been about corporations and less about financial professionals, with many companies pivoting to the Microstrategy model, the supply held by corporates has grown from 1.68m BTC at the beginning of 2025, to 1.87m at the end of Q1 and 1.98m at the time of writing 18th May. That’s an increase of 18.67% YTD (source).

That’s quite the contrast to the -12.8% decrease in BTC exposure by 13-F filers, though, in our view, this is a result of an unwinding of the basis trade, profit-taking and rotating out of bitcoin positions that have delivered substantial gains post US election and ETF launch — especially among hedge funds, whose exposure dropped by nearly one-third (32%) quarter-over-quarter. 

Despite recent divestments, there is promise in the fact that advisor allocations are increasing, and the average institutional portfolio weighting still remains below 1%, leaving plenty of capital on the sidelines.

The makeup of the broader Bitcoin ETF market is more or less unchanged. It continues to be majority owned by retail investors and smaller investment firms. However, slowly, we expect long-term institutional allocators to increasingly grow their exposure as regulatory frameworks become standard, oversight committees give approval, and financial professionals fill a knowledge gap.

We interpret these Q1 filings as a healthy market adjustment within an otherwise positive long-term adoption trajectory. This quarter’s data is not indicative of diminished institutional commitment but rather strategic repositioning, setting the stage for future growth and more substantial, sustained allocations.