Bitwise Chief Investment Officer: Who's Buying Bitcoin ETFs?
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Bitwise Chief Investment Officer: Who's Buying Bitcoin ETFs?
Professional investors are still in the early stages of allocating to spot Bitcoin ETFs, leaving significant room for future growth.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise
Translation: Luffy, Foresight News
Spot Bitcoin ETFs have been a massive success. Since their launch on January 11, they’ve attracted $11.7 billion in assets, making them the most popular ETFs ever.
Now everyone wants to know: Who exactly is buying? Specifically, people are asking whether professional investors or retail investors are driving the flows.
This is an important question. The big promise of Bitcoin ETFs is that they open the door for professional investors to buy bitcoin at scale, dramatically expanding the pool of capital invested in bitcoin.
If it’s professionals buying, great. But if it’s all retail, that’s less encouraging. Why? Because the scale behind each group is just completely different.
For the first few months after the ETFs launched, there was no answer. Investors buy ETFs through brokerage accounts, which means fund companies like Bitwise don’t know who is purchasing their funds. But once per quarter, the SEC requires investors managing over $100 million in assets to report their holdings of publicly traded securities via so-called “13F” filings.
Technically, these forms are due 45 days after the end of the quarter, meaning filings were due by May 15. But thousands have already filed, so we now have our first real look at who owns these ETFs.
The data is very, very interesting—and here are the three most important takeaways.
Takeaway 1: Many professional firms own Bitcoin ETFs
For this memo, I analyzed all 13F filings for the 11 publicly traded spot Bitcoin ETFs as of May 9. The big finding: many professional investors do own Bitcoin ETFs.
These include several well-known asset management firms such as:
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Hightower Advisors: According to Barron’s, the second-largest RIA firm in the U.S., managing $122 billion in assets. They hold $68 million worth of Bitcoin ETFs.
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Bracebridge Capital: A Boston-based hedge fund that manages money for institutions like Yale and Princeton. They hold $434 million in Bitcoin ETFs.
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Cambridge Investment Research: A firm with over 40 years of history, managing more than $170 billion in assets. They hold $40 million in Bitcoin ETFs.
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Sequoia Financial Advisors: Based in Towson, Maryland, with $1.7 billion in assets under management. They hold $12 million in Bitcoin ETFs.
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Integrated Advisors: A Dallas-based firm with over 12,000 clients and $4 billion in assets. They hold $11 million in Bitcoin ETFs.
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Brown Advisory: A San Francisco-based firm managing $9.6 billion in assets. They hold $4 million in Bitcoin ETFs.
As of last Thursday, 563 professional investment firms reported holding $3.5 billion in Bitcoin ETFs. By the May 15 filing deadline, I estimate we’ll end up with over 700 professional firms owning close to $5 billion in total.
This is absolutely significant. For any financial advisor, family office, or institution wondering if they’re alone in considering Bitcoin, the answer is clear: you are not alone.
Takeaway 2: Unprecedented scale of professional investor ownership
This level of ownership is extraordinary for a new ETF. Most ETFs attract very few 13F filers in their first few months. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that the number of large investors in Bitcoin ETFs is surprising.
The closest historical comparison I can find is the gold ETF launched in late 2004. At the time, the gold ETF was considered the most successful ETF launch ever, raising over $1 billion in its first five days. But when 13Fs were first filed, only 95 professional firms held the gold ETF.
In terms of ownership breadth, Bitcoin ETFs have achieved historic success.
Takeaway 3: Retail holds the majority of outstanding shares
While I believe $3–5 billion and 563–700 firms is a huge success, it’s important to remember that Bitcoin ETFs currently manage around $50 billion in assets. So in percentage terms, professional investors own only about 7–10% of all assets.
I suspect the media will latch onto this number and label these ETFs as “retail-driven.” To some extent, that makes sense—retail investors have poured significant money into Bitcoin ETFs, which is positive. It means they now have access to these investments on the same terms as the world’s largest institutions.
But I think this narrative misses a key pattern we see in crypto adoption among institutions.
Let me explain.
Why these 13F filings make me unusually optimistic
Bitwise has been dedicated to helping professional investors access crypto for over seven years. Today, we serve thousands of firms including RIAs, brokers, family offices, and institutions.
One thing I’ve learned from seven years of experience is that most investors follow a familiar pattern:
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Step 1: Due diligence. Most professional investors take 6–12 months to evaluate crypto. It’s extremely rare for clients to allocate capital immediately after the first meeting.
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Step 2: Personal allocation. We often see professionals make small personal allocations before allocating on behalf of clients. They want to test the waters before recommending it to investors.
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Step 3: Client-specific allocation. Next, these professionals typically allocate on behalf of a few clients—usually those actively asking about crypto.
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Step 4: Platform-wide allocation. About six months after initial allocations begin, many firms start allocating across their entire client base, typically 1%–5% of portfolios.
Not all advisors follow this exact path, but this is generally what we observe.
This tells us that the Bitcoin ETF allocations seen in recent 13F filings are just early steps. For example, Hightower Advisors may have allocated $68 million today—which is great—but that’s only 0.05% of their assets. If they follow the pattern above, that allocation will grow over time. Specifically, allocating 1% of their portfolios to Bitcoin would equate to $1.2 billion—and that’s just from one firm.
And when you consider that the number of professional investors entering the space continues to grow, you can see why I’m so excited.
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