correction: Aug 14, 18:47 UTC: The first article incorrectly reported that the Wisconsin State Board of Investments had purchased nearly $100 million in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust. In fact, this was the value of the total position, which was not significantly different from the previous quarter. Correction below.
The Wisconsin Investment Board purchased more shares of one physical Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the second quarter of 2024, while selling positions in another.
According to a 13-F filing with the SEC, the board purchased 447,651 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, bringing its total holding to 2,898,051 shares, valued at $98.9 million at the end of the quarter. It also sold its entire holding of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), valued at $63.7 million in the previous quarter.
This is the second consecutive quarter that the board has announced an investment in a spot Bitcoin ETF.
Even though the iShares Bitcoin Trust share price rose, the decline in price meant that the dollar value of that position actually decreased by $228,227, thus reducing the total dollar exposure to the spot Bitcoin ETF by approximately 39% as of the end of the quarter.
However, the board also purchased 5,980 shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, bringing its total holding to 98,446 shares, worth about $21.9 million, and 77,996 more shares of bitcoin miner Marathon Digital, bringing its total holding to 115,084 shares, worth about $2.3 million.
As of August 13, IBIT had the largest market share among spot Bitcoin ETFs with 58.8%, followed by GBTC with 15.2%.
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