Wisconsin State Investment Board Sells Bitcoin Trust ETF Shares
The Wisconsin State Investment Board (SWIB), which manages the state’s retirement fund, has divested its holdings in BlackRock’s Ishares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) during the first quarter of the year.
Reports indicate that there was no position in Spot Bitcoin ETF listed in the SWIB’s 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 15. This means they liquidated all 6,060,351 shares of IBIT that were reportedly held since the last quarter.
Currently, those over 6 million IBIT shares are valued at about $355.6 million.
Interestingly, SWIB was among the pioneering state investment funds to offer Bitcoin exposure to retirees in the U.S., having purchased $164 million worth of a Bitcoin ETF in the first quarter of 2024.
This substantial sale occurred just a quarter after SWIB had reported acquiring more IBIT shares in the previous quarter while reallocating one million shares of IBIT to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
As of the end of 2024, SWIB managed assets totaling $166 billion, and prior to the sale, Bitcoin ETFs made up approximately 0.2% of its entire portfolio.
IBIT Experiences Mixed Results
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, purchased 491,439 shares of IBIT in the first quarter. This information comes from the latest 13F filing.
With this purchase, Mubadala’s total IBIT shares increased to 8,726,972, worth around $512 million at current market prices.
On another note, IBIT’s net inflow exceeded $45 billion on May 14, marking a net inflow of $232.9 million according to recent data.
However, IBIT’s impressive streak of positive net inflows came to an end on May 13 when it recorded no inflow at all. The Bitcoin products offered by BlackRock had not seen significant outflows since April 9.
Among the competing Bitcoin ETFs, the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARK) have achieved the highest net inflows, amassing $11.6 billion and $2.7 billion, respectively.
