- Regulatory filings from large US institutional investors have shown they’ve reduced their exposure to Bitcoin ETFs for the first time since the funds launched, back in January 2024.
- The 13F filings show that large investors have cut their exposure to BTC ETFs by 23% quarter-on-quarter, driven largely by a fall in Bitcoin’s price and profit-taking by hedge funds.
- Digital assets investment firm, CoinShares, said that despite the fall the outlook for the ETFs remains positive, with significant room for growth from corporate holders.
First-quarter filings from US institutional investors reveal that their exposure to Bitcoin ETFs has declined quarter-on-quarter for the first time since the ETFs launched in January of 2024.
The 13F filings, which must be submitted quarterly to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) by all institutional investment managers with portfolios larger than US$100 million (AU$153.9 million), showed that US$21.2 billion (AUD$32.6b) in Bitcoin ETFs were held at the end of Q1 2025. This marked a drop of 23% from US$27.4 billion (AUD$42.1b) in Q4 2024.
According to European digital asset investment firm CoinShares, this decline in assets under management (AUM) was partially driven by Bitcoin’s 11% price drop over Q1 2024. Large-scale post-election profit taking by hedge funds also played a significant role.
Importantly, CoinShares doesn’t see this as a long-term institutional retreat from the ETFs, but simply a short-term strategic sell-off.
In our view, this is a result of an unwinding of the basis trade, profit-taking and rotating out of bitcoin positions that have delivered substantial gains post US election and ETF launch.
CoinSharesSomewhat surprisingly, data from the filings showed that investment advisors — firms like BlackRock and Goldman Sachs — actually increased their BTC holdings when denominated in BTC not USD (this removes the effect of BTC price declines). Whereas hedge funds reduced their holdings by around a third.
“The rotation suggests hedge funds took profits — reasonably so, given the rise in bitcoin price from the 60s up to 100k — and advisors are steadily reallocating client portfolios toward a bitcoin exposure,” CoinShares explained.
Overall, CoinShares said the Q1 filings suggest a “healthy market adjustment within an otherwise positive long-term adoption trajectory,” adding that the data isn’t “indicative of diminished institutional commitment but rather strategic repositioning, setting the stage for future growth and more substantial, sustained allocations.”
Related: Bitcoin Consolidates Below $110K as ETFs Add $2.7B in One Week
Corporations Continue to Accumulate BTC
According to CoinShares, the other big institutional trend is the continuing accumulation of BTC by corporations. Since the start of 2025 the number of BTC held by corporates has jumped from 1.68 million to 1.98 million in mid-May, an increase of just under 19% in under five months.
There remains substantial room for corporates to grow their Bitcoin holdings, as the current average institutional allocation is still under 1%.
Overall, despite this ongoing accumulation, the Bitcoin ETF landscape continues to be dominated by retail investors and small investment firms, with these investors accounting for US$71.1 billion (AUD$109.4b) of the AUM, compared to just US$21.1 billion (AUD$32.6b) for 13F filers.
Related: Strategy Becomes Standard: Spanish Coffee Chain to Invest Billions in Bitcoin
Over the longer-term though, as regulation becomes clearer and digital assets become more widely understood, CoinShares expects to see large institutions account for a much larger share of the Bitcoin ETF AUM:
However, slowly, we expect long-term institutional allocators to increasingly grow their exposure as regulatory frameworks become standard, oversight committees give approval, and financial professionals fill a knowledge gap.
CoinShares
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