Investment firms already absorbed 4.3% of Bitcoin supply: Arcane Research

Investment firms already have over 800,000 Bitcoins (BTC)—or 4.3% of the crypto’s current supply—under their management (AUM), Vetle Lunde, an analyst at crypto data firm Arcane Research, revealed on Twitter today.

“Exchange-traded bitcoin investment vehicles now have more than 800,000 BTC under management, equaling 4.3% of the circulating bitcoin supply,” said Lunde.

Exchange-traded bitcoin investment vehicles now have more than 800,000 BTC under management, equaling 4.3% of the circulating bitcoin supply.

Since New Year’s Eve, more than 100,000 BTC have been absorbed by bitcoin funds! pic.twitter.com/NpDt2TzcOz

— Vetle Lunde (@VetleLunde) March 29, 2021

Additionally, Bitcoin funds have already absorbed more than 100,000 BTC since the beginning of this year, he added.

In total, Bitcoin funds’ holdings amount to over $46 billion at current prices. Among them, digital asset investment giant Grayscale is still leading by far, accounting for 82% of the market.

03/26/21 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.

Total AUM: $41.0 billion$BTC $BCH $ETH $ETC $ZEN $LTC $XLM $ZEC $BAT $LINK $MANA $FIL $LPT pic.twitter.com/WbxbHe4L2g

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) March 26, 2021

According to Grayscale’s latest report published on Friday, the company has $41 billion in digital assets under its management in total. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust comprises the lion’s share of those holdings, amounting to around $34.7 billion in BTC. It is followed by the firm’s Ethereum Trust that holds $5.17 billion worth of ETH. Lunde pointed out:

“However, with the three recent ETF approvals in Canada, Grayscale’s dominance in the market has started to decline.”

Exchange-traded funds—or ETFs—are a special type of securities that track the prices of certain underlying assets and are tradeable on traditional finance platforms. As such, Bitcoin ETFs allow institutional investors to get exposure to BTC’s price volatility without actually holding the crypto.

However, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has turned down all applications for Bitcoin ETFs over the past few years, so these investment products are still unavailable in the US.

Canada’s three Bitcoin ETFs, on the other hand, have already reached a market share of 2.5% in just a couple of weeks since their approval, Lunde noted.

As CryptoSlate reported, asset managers Fidelity Investments, SkyBridge Capital, and VanEck have all recently applied for Bitcoin ETFs—but the SEC’s decision is still up in the air.

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