Thomas Daniels
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board has more than doubled its Bitcoin ETF holdings in just three months, while Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund has made its first public disclosure of Bitcoin investments.
Wisconsin Expands Bitcoin ETF Holdings
According to a 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Wisconsin’s state investment board acquired an additional 3.1 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in Q4 2024. This follows the state’s initial move last year, when it became the first sovereign fund to invest in Bitcoin ETFs.
Initially, Wisconsin purchased nearly 95,000 IBIT shares and also allocated capital to the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF. By August 2024, its total Bitcoin ETF holdings had grown to approximately 2.9 million shares. As of the latest filing, the board’s Bitcoin ETF investments were valued at around $588 million, with Bitcoin trading below $99,000.
Abu Dhabi’s Strategic Bitcoin Allocation
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Abu Dhabi has joined the wave of sovereign institutions allocating funds to Bitcoin ETFs. Regulatory filings from the SEC’s EDGAR database reveal that Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, acquired BlackRock IBIT shares worth approximately $436.9 million as of December 31, 2024. Mubadala, which manages major state investments for the UAE capital, has now taken a significant step into Bitcoin exposure.
The timing of Mubadala’s Bitcoin ETF purchase aligns with BlackRock receiving regulatory approval to offer crypto services in Abu Dhabi in November 2024. This move follows the emirate’s prior investments in the Bitcoin mining industry, which saw companies like Marathon Digital establish operations in 2023.
With sovereign wealth funds from Wisconsin and Abu Dhabi increasingly embracing Bitcoin ETFs, institutional adoption of cryptocurrency-backed assets continues to accelerate on a global scale.
