Here Are The Largest Institutional Buyers Of Bitcoin This Week

The Spot Bitcoin ETFs have lived up to the hype, as these funds have ramped up institutional adoption of the flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. This is further evident in a recent analysis that captured how much Bitcoin BlackRock and other issuers amassed in this week alone. 

Data from the on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain shows that the Spot Bitcoin ETF issuers combined to purchase over 19,908 BTC ($860 million) this week. Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that Lookonchain’s data didn’t capture WisdomTree’s BTC purchases in its analysis, suggesting that the figure could be way higher when the asset manager’s purchases are also factored in. 

Further data obtained from Arkham Intelligence provided insights into how much Bitcoin Wisdom Tree obtained for its Bitcoin fund this week. 74 BTC is shown to have gone into the asset manager’s wallet address for its Spot Bitcoin ETF. The addition of these crypto tokens means that all Spot Bitcoin ETF issuers combined to purchase almost 20,000 BTC this week alone. 

Interestingly, Bitcoin ETFs were recently reported to hold 3.3% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply, underscoring their success since launching. Data from Lookonchain shows that these ETFs currently hold over 657,000 BTC (excluding WisdomTree). 

Matt Hougan, Bitwise’s Chief Investment Officer (CIO), also revealed how these funds have seen flows of $1.7 billion after their first 14 trading days. This is more impressive as he made a comparison to Gold ETFs, which saw $1.3 billion in a similar time frame. In another X post, he mentioned how these Spot Bitcoin ETFs have taken $700 million in net inflows this week alone.

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart mentioned in an X post that BlackRock’s IBIT looks to have become the first ETF to trade more than Grayscale’s GBTC in a single day. Before now, Grayscale had continued to record the most daily trading volume, although IBIT had come close on a couple of occasions. 

From the data that Seyffart shared, IBIT looks to have recorded $301 million in trading volume on February 1, while GBTC saw $290 in trading volume. However, he further stated that the total trading on the day “was kind of a dud,” with all Spot Bitcoin ETFs combined recording $924 million in trading volume.

Interestingly, that happened to be the first day that the daily volume for Spot Bitcoin ETFs was under $1 billion. The Bloomberg analyst didn’t, however, give any opinion as to what could have caused this relatively sub-par performance.