Bitcoin is approaching the $100,000 mark. An inventory of the institutional forces behind more than 2.7 million Bitcoin holdings

Author: Nancy, PANews

Bitcoin has broken through the $97,000 mark today, setting a new record. As the price of Bitcoin continues to soar, calls for including Bitcoin in national reserve assets are growing louder around the world, and at the same time, many institutions are also accelerating their pace of increasing their holdings of Bitcoin.

According to the latest data from BitcoinTreasuries.com, PANews has reviewed the Bitcoin holdings of major institutions. As of November 21, 93 entities (ETFs, countries, listed companies and private companies, etc.) around the world publicly hold more than 2.728 million Bitcoins, accounting for nearly 13% of the total supply of Bitcoin. This trend further shows that institutional investors have gradually replaced retail investors as the dominant force in this bull market.

ETF: Asset value exceeds US$110 billion, IBIT holdings account for more than 38%

Bitcoin spot ETFs have become an important holding channel for institutions. According to data from BitcoinTreasuries.com, as of November 21, the number of Bitcoins held by Bitcoin spot ETFs exceeded 1.231 million, with a current value of over $116.89 billion, accounting for more than 5.8% of the total supply of Bitcoin; at the same time, data from The Block showed that since its launch at the beginning of this year, the cumulative trading volume of US Bitcoin spot ETFs has exceeded $520 billion.

In terms of asset size, the top three Bitcoin spot ETFs are BlackRock IBIT, Grayscale GBTC and Fidelity FBTC .

Among them, BlackRock IBIT holds the largest ETF with 475,000 bitcoins, with a holding value of approximately US$45.05 billion, accounting for approximately 38.6% of all ETF holdings. According to Fintel statistics, IBIT has 698 institutional holders with a total holding of nearly 160 million shares, including Millennium Management, Goldman Sachs, IMC, Aristeia, Capula Management, Schonfeld, Morgan Stanley and Graham Capital Management.

Grayscale GBTC holds more than 218,000 bitcoins, worth more than $20.71 billion. According to Fintel statistics, there are 647 institutions holding GBTC, holding a total of 44.459 million shares. GBTC shareholders include Horizon Kinetics Trust Fund, Goldman Sachs, Multicoin Capital, LPL Financial, Greenwich Wealth Management, Colony Group and HighTower Advisors.

Fidelity FBTC followed closely with 194,000 bitcoins, with a holding value of $18.42 billion. According to Fintel statistics, FBTC has 246 institutional holders, with a total holding of more than 5,168.8 shares, including Millennium Management, Capula Management, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, DE Shaw & Co., Susquehanna International Group, Jane Street, Hbk Investments LP, Goldman Sachs and Pine Ridge Advisers.

Countries: A total of nearly 530,000 bitcoins are held, with the United States, China and the United Kingdom accounting for nearly half

Many countries around the world have become important holders of Bitcoin. And PANews previously reported that more and more governments are re-evaluating the value of Bitcoin as an asset, and many have even publicly advocated including Bitcoin in their national reserve assets.

According to statistics from BitcoinTreasuries.com, as of November 21, nine countries currently know to hold more than 529,000 bitcoins (worth about $50.24 billion), accounting for 2.5% of the total bitcoin holdings. Among these countries, the United States, China, and the United Kingdom are the main forces, holding 207,000, 194,000, and 61,000 bitcoins respectively, accounting for 46.2% of the total holdings of these countries. However, most of the bitcoins held by these countries were obtained through law enforcement actions. In contrast, only Bhutan and El Salvador obtained bitcoins through mining or real money purchases.

 Countries holding Bitcoin

Listed companies: holdings valued at over $42.2 billion, with MicroStrategy accounting for nearly 80%

Public companies are becoming an important force in Bitcoin allocation. According to data from BitcoinTreasuries.com, as of November 21, 43 public companies directly held nearly 445,000 Bitcoins, currently worth about $42.22 billion, including MicroStrategy, Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, Tesla, Hut 8 and Coinbase Global.

For example, MicroStrategy owns more than 331,000 bitcoins (worth more than $31.43 billion), accounting for nearly 74.4% of the total bitcoin holdings of listed companies. Based on the current price of Bitcoin of about $97,000, MicroStrategy's floating profit on holdings exceeds $14.6 billion. With the help of the Bitcoin investment strategy, MicroStrategy has ranked among the top 100 listed companies in the United States by market value, and has driven its stock price to soar. According to Tradingview data, its stock MSTR's trading volume yesterday (November 20) was second only to Nvidia, reaching $33.27 billion. At present, MicroStrategy has not stopped buying Bitcoin. The agency recently announced that it will increase the issuance of zero-interest convertible senior notes to $2.6 billion, and part of the net proceeds will be used to purchase Bitcoin. In addition, it also disclosed that the plan to raise funds to purchase Bitcoin through stock issuance and sales still has $15.3 billion in unused quota.

Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital holds nearly 26,000 bitcoins, currently worth about $2.46 billion. Marathon Digital's bitcoins mainly come from mining and fund purchases. According to the third quarter financial report alone, it produced a total of 2,070 bitcoins and purchased 6,210 bitcoins in that quarter. Marathon Digital is also issuing $850 million in convertible notes, with the option to expand to $1 billion for debt repurchases and bitcoin acquisitions.

After Tesla announced the purchase of $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in 2021, it sold only 4,320 Bitcoins in March 2021, and then sold 29,160 Bitcoins in 2022, selling about 75% of its Bitcoin holdings. Tesla still holds 9,720 Bitcoins, currently worth more than $920 million, but it accounts for less than 0.7% of Tesla's total assets ($119.8 billion) and only 0.046% of the total amount of Bitcoin.

 Top 10 listed companies holding coins

Private companies: reserves valued at over $34.8 billion

Many private crypto institutions also hold a lot of Bitcoin. According to data from BitcoinTreasuries.com, as of November 21, 12 private companies including Block.one, Tether, Xapo Bank, BitMEX and Mt. Gox held a total of about 367,000 Bitcoins, with a current value of more than $34.81 billion, accounting for 1.7% of the total Bitcoin supply.

For example, Block.one holds 140,000 bitcoins, worth more than $13.28 billion, and its bitcoins mainly come from ICO funds . Since Tether announced in 2022 that it would use bitcoin as its asset reserve, it now holds more than 82,000 bitcoins, worth more than $7.82 billion; the crypto bank Xapo Bank holds nearly 34,000 bitcoins, worth more than $3.69 billion. The institution also became the first bank in the UK to launch interest-bearing bitcoin and legal currency bank accounts this year.

 Publicly disclosed private companies holding coins

Bitcoin mining companies: holdings account for less than 0.3% of the total Bitcoin

Crypto mining companies are also important holders of Bitcoin. According to data from BitcoinTreasuries.com, as of November 21, 14 Bitcoin mining companies held a total of more than 61,000 Bitcoins, currently worth $5.84 billion, accounting for less than 0.3% of the total Bitcoin supply. Among them, Marathon Digital, mentioned above, holds the most Bitcoin among Bitcoin mining companies, far exceeding other similar companies; followed by Riot Platforms, which holds about 10,000 Bitcoins, but from its latest quarterly financial report, the company has suffered a huge loss, but most of its revenue comes from Bitcoin mining; Hut 8 ranks third with 9,109 Bitcoins. After receiving a $150 million investment in June this year, the company is committed to building AI-related infrastructure, and has purchased a large number of mining machines from Bitmain, as well as cooperating to launch new mining machines.