In the 2024 Q4 13F filings, it shows that Bitcoin is accelerating institutionalization. Although the current holding ratio is still relatively low, its market position will further solidify as more institutions enter and increase their allocations.
Author: @samcallah
Translation: Baihua Blockchain
I reviewed the 13F documents, and according to my statistics, a total of 1,573 institutions held long positions in Bitcoin in the fourth quarter of 2024.
These institutions include banks, hedge funds, registered investment advisors (RIA), family offices, endowment funds, pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and other asset management companies. Here are some key findings:
1. What is a 13F Filing?
Before diving deeper, I want to clarify what a 13F filing is. Each quarter, large investment firms managing over $100 million in assets must submit a 13F filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclosing their holdings of U.S. stocks and related assets, such as ETFs, REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts), options, and convertible bonds.
It is important to note that 13F filings only include institutions' long positions in U.S. stocks and related assets.
Therefore, it does not include the following assets: bonds, real estate, commodities, precious metals, private investments (such as hedge funds, venture capital, etc.), futures, spot Bitcoin, cash, foreign stocks/currencies, and short positions.
Thus, 13F filings cannot comprehensively reflect the overall investment portfolio of institutions.
We cannot ascertain the proportion of holdings in other asset classes, nor can we determine whether a particular long position is merely used to hedge against short positions elsewhere.
I emphasize this point because I will discuss the scale of Bitcoin holdings in these 13F filings next. But please note that this data only reflects the allocation of institutions in U.S. stocks and related assets.
In reality, the scale of Bitcoin holdings by these institutions may be smaller than reported, provided they are also investing in other asset classes.
A good example is the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund, which recently disclosed its holdings in $IBIT (iShares Bitcoin Trust), one of the most exciting 13F filings to date.
In this filing, Bitcoin is the fund's second-largest holding, with an exposure of approximately $437 million.
But the key point is that the assets under management (AUM) disclosed in the 13F filing is only $20 billion, while the fund's actual total AUM is as high as $302 billion. In other words, the holdings reported in the 13F filing account for only about 6.6% of the fund's total assets.
This makes sense, as the fund's investments cover multiple asset classes globally, far beyond the U.S. stock market.
Therefore, the actual proportion of Bitcoin in its total investment portfolio is only 0.1%, not 2.1%. Nevertheless, this is still a highly positive development.
Considering this, the median Bitcoin holding among all institutions in these 13F filings is only 0.13%.
This ratio is very small… but it is a positive signal. It indicates that Bitcoin adoption among institutions is still in a very early stage. It is worth noting that BlackRock recently suggested allocating 1-2% of assets to Bitcoin.
However, among these investment firms, a few institutions have significantly higher Bitcoin allocation ratios than their peers, and coincidentally, their managers are top asset management experts in the industry with proven track records of excellence.
- Noteworthy Information
Here are some of the most striking 13F filings that are particularly worth noting…
1) Horizon Kinetics
Horizon Kinetics' second-largest holding is Bitcoin (16.16%), with an exposure of about $1.3 billion. This company is led by one of the most outstanding figures in the investment world—Murray Stahl. In their Q4 2024 commentary, the company explained why they did not rebalance their Bitcoin holdings.
2) Bracebridge Capital
The company's largest holding is Bitcoin (23.6%), with an exposure of about $334 million.
Bracebridge Capital is led by Nancy Zimmerman, specializing in managing assets for foundations, pensions, and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), and is responsible for managing part of the investment portfolios of Yale University and Princeton University, two of the best-performing endowment funds over the past 20 years.
3) Tudor Investment Corp
Tudor's largest holding is Bitcoin (1.625%), with an exposure of about $436 million. This filing has made headlines and is indeed worth attention.
Paul Tudor Jones is one of the greatest investors of this generation. Last month, he also discussed why he still holds Bitcoin.
4) Fortress Investment Group
The company's fourth-largest holding is Bitcoin (11.2%), with an exposure of about $70 million. Notably, the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund (Mubadala) acquired 68% of Fortress last year, becoming its majority shareholder.
Thus, this is essentially a further positioning of the UAE in Bitcoin.
5) Brevan Howard
The company's second-largest holding is Bitcoin (8.74%), with an exposure of about $1.4 billion. Brevan Howard's team has been a steadfast supporter of Bitcoin for years, and this large macro hedge fund clearly understands the art of long-term holding (HODLing).
During the bear market in 2022, Bitcoin plummeted by 50%, but billionaire Alan Howard still expressed a firm view…
6) Discovery Capital Management
The company's fifth-largest holding is Bitcoin (4.6%), with an exposure of about $68 million. Discovery is led by Robert Citrone, who has worked with Julian Robertson and George Soros and is a minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He has explained why he focuses on Bitcoin.
7) Jericho Capital
The company's fifth-largest holding is Bitcoin (5.4%), with an exposure of about $378 million. Jericho is led by Josh Resnick, and the fund's growth trajectory has been quite remarkable—growing from $36 million in 2009 to now managing over $7 billion in assets.
8) Hudson Bay Capital Management
The company holds a 0.15% Bitcoin position, with an exposure of about $44 million. But the truly interesting part is not this holding, but that—infamous Bitcoin bear Nouriel Roubini is actually a senior advisor to the company.
Fortunately, they didn't heed his Bitcoin advice!
9) State of Wisconsin Investment Board
The big news here is that the state's pension fund tripled its Bitcoin holdings in the last quarter.
Q2: Holding $99 million, 2,898,051 shares (0.26%)
Q3: Holding $104 million, 2,889,251 shares (0.26%)
Q4: Holding $321 million, 6,060,351 shares (0.82%) Increasing position winners!
10) State of Michigan Retirement System
But Wisconsin is not the only state increasing its Bitcoin holdings—Michigan's pension fund has also nearly doubled its Bitcoin position.
Q2: Holding $6.6 million, 110,000 shares (0.03%)
Q3: Holding $6.9 million, 110,000 shares (0.03%)
Q4: Holding $9.3 million, 100,000 shares (0.05%) Still small in scale, but growing!
11) Emory University
The university's second-largest holding is Bitcoin (32.3%), with an exposure of about $22 million. The endowment fund's Bitcoin holdings remained unchanged from the previous quarter, indicating that despite Bitcoin's price rising by about 50%, they did not actively adjust their position.
Emory University chooses to continue holding (HODL).
12) Pine Ridge Advisors
The company's second-largest holding is Bitcoin (18.4%), with an exposure of about $209 million. I don't know much about this company, but I mention it because its Bitcoin allocation is quite concentrated for a family office of this size.
By the way, this is their entire website interface—so you know they are indeed a "legitimate player."
13) Capula Management
The company's second-largest holding is Bitcoin (5.4%), with an exposure of about $936 million. This is the fourth-largest hedge fund in Europe, led by Yan Huo, who was the head of the fixed income trading department at JPMorgan.
Their investment strategy is innovative and low-correlation investments, no wonder they are long on Bitcoin.
14) Cresset Asset Management
Bitcoin has become one of the top 30 holdings of Cresset, one of the largest and leading independent registered investment advisors (RIA) in the U.S. Cresset is increasing its Bitcoin holdings every quarter:
Q2: Holding $33.7 million (0.14%)
Q3: Holding $53.9 million (0.21%)
Q4: Holding $107.5 million (0.51%) This is worth noting to gauge its financial advisors' (FA) investment trends in Bitcoin.
You may have noticed that I did not mention some well-known institutions holding large amounts of Bitcoin ETFs, such as:Millennium ($2.6 billion, 1.28%)
Jane Street ($2.4 billion, 0.52%)
Susquehanna ($1 billion, 0.16%)
DE Shaw ($869 million, 0.64%)
Citadel ($446 million, 0.08%)
Point72 ($155 million, 0.34%) This is because **these institutions are primarily *quantitative funds* and market makers**. Their algorithms do not care what the trading target is, whether it is *IBIT, META, GE, SPY, or TLT*, they are just *looking for arbitrage* opportunities and market inefficiencies.
Therefore, they are not long-term holders, and I suspect many institutions' Bitcoin positions may be market neutral, which makes their exposure less interesting to me.
That said, I still appreciate their trading activities in the market. Their participation enhances market efficiency by narrowing the bid-ask spread, deepening the order book, and increasing liquidity, allowing the market to operate more smoothly.
The same situation applies to some large banks holding Bitcoin ETFs:
JPMorgan: $964,000 (0.0001%)
Goldman Sachs: $2.3 billion (0.37%)
Wells Fargo: $375,000 (0.0001%)
Bank of America: $24 million (0.002%)
Morgan Stanley: $259 million (0.02%) Banks like JPMorgan are authorized participants (APs) for many Bitcoin ETFs and also act as market makers. For APs, it is entirely normal to hold a portion of ETF shares on their balance sheets, as they are responsible for creating and redeeming ETF shares.
Market makers also need to hold a certain number of ETF shares to better provide liquidity, facilitate market trading, enhance pricing efficiency, and ensure the accuracy of ETF prices.In addition, banks are currently subject to regulatory restrictions from the Federal Reserve, prohibiting them from holding Bitcoin on their own balance sheets in a proprietary manner. Specific regulations can be referenced in this official document: Federal Reserve Statement.
However, with the repeal of the SAB-121 regulation, the regulatory environment is changing. Among these banks, Morgan Stanley stands out—last August, it became the first major bank to allow financial advisors to recommend Bitcoin ETFs to clients.
Goldman Sachs has also been very active, providing Bitcoin exposure to high-net-worth clients through its asset management division for years. But if its trading department holds Bitcoin, I suspect it is more likely running a market-neutral arbitrage strategy (such as basis trading), meaning it is not truly net long.
As bank regulations evolve, how these large banks adjust their Bitcoin holdings and expand their participation in the Bitcoin market in the coming quarters will be a trend worth closely monitoring.
This is a point worth emphasizing.
- Summary
Overall, these 13F filings indicate that Bitcoin is gradually becoming an institutional-grade asset. Currently, the market size and liquidity of Bitcoin are large enough to accommodate these institutional investors.
As new investment tools continue to emerge, these institutions will have more ways to gain Bitcoin exposure, and institutional adoption will accelerate.
In this post, I introduced some pioneers among institutions entering the Bitcoin space, but this trend is still in its very early stages, which means there are still significant opportunities ahead.
Institutional investors managing trillions of dollars are currently just scratching the surface, having only begun to venture into the Bitcoin market. According to my research: in the last quarter, among 8,190 13F filings, only about 19% of institutions disclosed long positions in Bitcoin. As more institutions enter the market or existing institutions increase their allocations, the influx of funds into Bitcoin will drive its price up and could even fundamentally change its investor structure.
Thank you for reading!
Article link: https://www.hellobtc.com/kp/du/02/5684.html
Source: https://x.com/samcallah/status/1892245816888242428
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