BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has officially surpassed MicroStrategy in terms of total bitcoin holdings.
BlackRock’s spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), now holds 195,985 bitcoin, worth $13.5 billion, as per its latest disclosure statement. This means that the fund’s bitcoin holdings have now officially surpassed those of MicroStrategy, which held 193,000 bitcoin as of its latest statement on Feb. 26.
[1/4] Bitcoin ETF Flow – 08 March 2024
All data in. $223m positive net flow for thew day
The assets of the ETFs excluding GBTC are now over $28 billion, this is now larger than GBTC's assets for the first time pic.twitter.com/5BlBTu4WLn
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) March 9, 2024
MicroStrategy, under the helm of its longtime bitcoin advocate CEO Michael Saylor, has been acquiring bitcoin since it became the first publicly-listed company to do so in August 2020. At the time, the company said its $250 million purchase would be part of its “new capital allocation strategy” to maximize value for shareholders.
Interestingly, MicroStrategy’s stock has traded much like a proxy bitcoin ETF, moving in tandem with the price of bitcoin on several occasions. In 2023, MicroStrategy’s share price skyrocketed 300%, outperforming Nasdaq tech giants like Nvidia and Meta.
The company recently announced plans to raise $700 million through the sale of convertible senior notes in order to fund more bitcoin purchases.
Still, the rapid pace at which IBIT has acquired such a substantial amount of bitcoin highlights how large the demand has been for these new funds. Industry watchers have attributed bitcoin’s recent price action to the heightened activity in spot bitcoin ETFs.
On Friday, the price of bitcoin briefly touched the $70,000 mark for the first time. At the time of writing, the leading digital asset had declined slightly, and was trading at around $67,900.
