Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund raised BlackRock Bitcoin ETF exposure to 8.7 million shares in Q1, valued at $408.5 million

Mubadala Investment Company, one of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth funds, disclosed in a  13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that it had added 491,439 shares in BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF during Q1, currently worth around $28.8 million.

The Q1 acquisitions increased its total IBIT holdings to 8,726,972 as of March 31 from 8,235,533 at the end of December. Despite the increase in shares, the total U.S. dollar value of its holdings fell to $408.5 million at the end of Q1 from $436.9 million at the end of Q4, reflecting a decline in IBIT's market price over the quarter. However, the upsized position would now be worth around $512 million at current prices.

BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust closed down 0.12% on Thursday at $58.67, according to TradingView. Bitcoin is currently trading for $103,525, per The Block's Bitcoin price page .

13F filings are quarterly reports filed with the SEC by institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in equity assets under management. The filings provide a view of the manager's stock holdings at the end of each quarter.

However, 13F reports only require the disclosure of long positions in U.S. equities and options on equities. They do not require the disclosure of short positions or many other derivatives, so they only provide a partial view of an investment manager's overall portfolio strategy.

BlackRock's IBIT currently dominates the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market, attracting over $45.5 billion in net inflows since launching in January 2024, with $65.4 billion in assets under management, according to The Block’s Bitcoin ETF Tracker page .

More Bitcoin ETF disclosures role in

Avenir, a Hong Kong-based investment firm and Asia's largest Bitcoin ETF holder, disclosed owning 14.7 million shares of IBIT as of March 31, valued at $691 million. That's up from 11.3 million shares reported as of Dec. 31.

Citadel Advisors also disclosed holding 3.1 million IBIT shares as of March 31, up from 1.1 million at the end of Q4. Citadel Advisors is the investment management arm of Citadel LLC, a global hedge fund and financial services firm founded in 1990 by billionaire investor Ken Griffin. The firm also increased holdings in various other U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, including Fidelity's FBTC, Bitwise's BITB, and Franklin Templeton's EZBC, as well as additional spot Ethereum ETF holdings via BlackRock and Grayscale, alongside various call and put options on the assets.

However, the investment discretion for these positions indicates Citadel Advisors is acting as a sub-advisor or managing assets on behalf of other parties, in contrast to Mubadala, which appears to hold its IBIT shares with full investment discretion, implying it manages the position directly.

Meanwhile, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board revealed in a Thursday filing that it no longer owned $321 million worth of BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF as of March 31, cutting its position from the end of Q4.

Millennium Management, formerly the top IBIT holder, reported it held around 17.5 million shares as of March 31, valued at roughly $823 million — down from the 29.8 million shares, worth around $1.5 billion at the time, it disclosed in its Q4 filing.

Goldman Sachs is currently the largest holder of IBIT with 30,831,854 shares, worth around $1.4 billion as of March 31, according to Fintel data.

"Institutions (and individuals) sell for various reasons: rebalancing, liquidity needs, simple profit-taking etc," institutional trading analyst MacroScope posted on X. "Wisconsin's initial buy was important because it helped validate BTC as an acceptable investment for a rigorous type of investor with a high public profile (pensions and endowments). That validation is unchanged; Brown University, Emory University, the State of Michigan etc reported Bitcoin ETF positions in the most recent quarter. In the specific case of Wisconsin, they continue to own BTC-related positions including MicroStrategy and Coinbase. Wisconsin added to both positions during the quarter."