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Institutional investors have not flocked to Bitcoin in large numbers, with only 30 fund managers buying into BTC according to 13F reports.

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Institutional investors have not flocked to Bitcoin in large numbers, with only 30 fund managers buying into BTC according to 13F reports.

The U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF was officially launched on January 11 this year, bringing in a total of $12.4 billion in capital inflows to the market. Who are these investors? Are they retail investors or have institutional investors also entered the market? According to the 13F report compiled by Bloomberg's ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, institutional investors such as BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC currently only account for 0.2% of the market, a far cry from the 42% seen in the Bitcoin futures ETF BITO. Are institutional investors still testing the waters?

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13F Reports Form 13F is a report that must be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by institutional investment managers or advisors with assets under management of over $100 million within 45 days after the end of each quarter. Since the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF was officially launched on January 11 this year, the first 13F report will cover up to the end of March and will be released by mid-May.

According to the latest statistics from Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, there are currently about 30 institutions, mainly funds and advisory companies, that have bought into BlackRock's IBIT, with the largest share held by Brookstone Capital Management at 0.04% of IBIT, and these institutions collectively hold only 0.2% of IBIT shares.

There are currently 11 institutional holders of Fidelity's FBTC, accounting for only 0.2% of the shares, with one of them being Baldwin Brothers Inc, a prominent American acting family, and Balchunas speculates that the trading is led by Stephen Andrew Baldwin, who has appeared in The Usual Suspects and The Flintstones.

Since the deadline for the 13F report is in mid-May, this means that there may be many institutions not included in this statistics. However, Balchunas speculates that this also means that the Bitcoin spot ETF is held by many retail investors.