Last Updated on 04/09/2024 by Arun jain
Bitcoin’s journey to the top of the digital asset space hasn’t been easy, but in recent years, it’s become big enough to attract the attention of major corporations — big enough to enter the exchange-traded fund (ETF) field and big enough to be picked up by institutional investors.
Spot bitcoin ETF circles have made significant waves since the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the fund earlier this year. Bitcoin ETFs are some of the world’s largest corporate holders of the top digital asset by market value, according to the latest data from HODL15Capital, a well-followed investor on X whose charts and graphs are frequently used by industry analysts and experts.
Blackrock reigns supreme
Investment management behemoth BlackRock’s IBIT is the world’s top corporate holder of bitcoin, with 357,509 holdings, according to HODL15 Capital data as of September 1, 2024.
In fourth place is Fidelity’s spot bitcoin ETF, FBTC, which holds 178,349 bitcoins. Not far behind but in fifth place is stablecoin giant Tether, which has 75,354 BTC.
Other notable names on the list of 18 corporations are bitcoin miner Marathon Digital, which holds 25,000 BTC, and ARK Invest/21 Shares’ ARKB, which holds 37,147 bitcoins.
Microstrategy transcends grayscale
The biggest story in the latest list is MicroStrategy, which has wrested the top 2 spot from grayscale’s GBTC, albeit in a close battle. MicroStrategy, a tech firm that announced earlier this year that it would transition into a “bitcoin development company,” was third in August before taking second place from GBTC earlier this week.
MicroStrategy, founded by Bitcoin Maximalist Michael Saylor, now holds 226,500 Bitcoins, while GBTC has 225,671 BTC.
Notably, MicroStrategy was the world’s largest known corporate holder of BTC before the Spot Bitcoin ETF was born. The tech company is one of the well-known early adopters of the Bitcoin accumulation strategy.
The State of Bitcoin After the August Bloodbath
The continued acquisition of bitcoins by major corporations came even as the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency saw a significant drop in early August due to a broader financial market meltdown.
In fact, four of the top corporate holders on the HODL15 Capital list have been “held” throughout. Crypto market bloodbath: BlackRock, Greyscale, Fidelity and MicroStrategy. Even when many other companies and small holders decided to dump their coins amid the pressure, these companies did not sell their BTC holdings.
Bitcoin crashed to $57,000 on Monday, starting the week in the red. However, it fell to $59,000 on Tuesday morning before sinking to $56,000 late on Tuesday. CoinGecko The data digital coin remains volatile and has yet to approach its all-time high of $73,700 in March, but maximalists believe it’s only a matter of time before the digital asset bull run begins.
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