Wisconsin Dumps BlackRock Bitcoin ETF as Mubadala and Citadel Increase Holdings

Highlights:

• Wisconsin’s investment board dumped all its BlackRock BTC ETF shares recently.
• BlackRock’s IBIT remains top spot Bitcoin ETF with strong inflows.
• Mubadala and Citadel boosted their BlackRock Bitcoin ETF holdings significantly in Q1.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) revealed in its 13F filing to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 15 that it had sold its $321 million stake in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ticker IBIT). SWIB, which oversees the state’s retirement assets, sold its entire holding of 6,060,351 IBIT shares during the first quarter. At today’s prices, this stake is valued at approximately $355.6 million. Wisconsin had already sold its entire $63.7 million position in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

Surprising that State of Wisconsin Investment Board sold their Bitcoin ETF shares for a couple of reasons.

One being that they still have a $50m position in MSTR (at today's price). https://t.co/vW72ApSAHU pic.twitter.com/EazTEjcuZU

— Julian Fahrer (@Julian__Fahrer) May 15, 2025

SWIB was among the earliest state investment funds to offer Bitcoin exposure to U.S. retirees. In the first quarter of 2024, it purchased $164 million in Bitcoin ETFs when these products were first introduced. By year-end, SWIB oversaw more than $166 billion in assets, with Bitcoin ETFs making up roughly 0.2% of its total portfolio before they were sold. In the fourth quarter, SWIB bought more IBIT shares and moved all 1 million GBTC shares to IBIT. The large sell-off happened just one quarter later.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board has not fully withdrawn from crypto investments. The latest filing shows it still owned close to $19 million worth of Coinbase stock at the end of the first quarter.

BlackRock’s IBIT Continues to Attract Strong Investor Interest

BlackRock’s IBIT has maintained its top position with a 20-day run of net inflows totaling over $5 billion. It continues to be the largest spot Bitcoin ETF, overseeing assets exceeding $65 billion, according to SosoValue. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted IBIT’s notable popularity compared to other funds.

He pointed out that IBIT was attracting significantly more inflows than its rivals, which is unusual since there is usually more balance among funds. Balchunas suggested this trend might be due to the return of hedge fund basis trading and large investors entering the market following the decoupling and rally.

One interesting note also is $IBIT taking in SO much more then the rest of them (altho 10 of them have seen inflows). Usually there's much more parity tho. Why is this? My theory, return of the HF basis trade and some big fish biting after the decoupling and subsequent rally. pic.twitter.com/S4X1hsGL7B

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) May 5, 2025

Citadel and Mubadala Increase BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Shares

Institutional demand for BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust is strong. Recent SEC filings show that Abu Dhabi’s Citadel Advisors and Mubadala Investment Company have increased their ETF holdings. As of March 31, Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, held 8.7 million shares valued at approximately $408 million, according to a May 15 filing.

In a 13F filed today, Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, disclosed owning 8,726,972 shares of IBIT as of March 31, valued at $408.5 million.

That's an increase from 8,235,533 shares previously reported as of December 31.

This is an important one.

Filing:…

— MacroScope (@MacroScope17) May 15, 2025

Mubadala increased its IBIT shares from 8.2 million at the end of last year to 8.7 million. However, the total value declined from $436 million to $408 million due to a drop in price. Citadel Advisors also expanded its IBIT holdings in the first quarter of 2025, increasing from about 1 million shares in December to over 3 million shares valued at roughly $147 million, according to a recent filing. Additionally, Citadel revealed it holds $366 million in put options and $676 million in call options linked to IBIT.