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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on Nov. 26, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Bitcoin exchange traded funds are now the largest holders of the flagship cryptocurrency.Â
The 12 spot bitcoin ETFs in existence have collectively passed $100 billion in assets under management, one of the most successful ETF launches in history.Â
The funds now own slightly more than 1.1 million bitcoin, equivalent to about 5% of all the bitcoin in existence.Â
Bitcoin in 2024
Collectively, bitcoin ETFs now own more of the cryptocurrency than legendary pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto, who is believed to control as much as 1.1 million bitcoin.Â
Largest bitcoin holders
- U.S. Spot ETFs           1,104,534
- Satoshi Nakamoto  1,100,000
- Binance                       633,000
- MicroStrategy            402,100
- U.S. Government      198,109
- Chinese Government 194,000
- Bitfinex                           184,027
- Kraken                             158,959
- Block One                       164,000
- Robinhood                     142,361
Source:Â Bloomberg/Eric Balchunas
“Bitcoin ETFs have become the vehicle of choice for bitcoin holders,” Brian Hartigan, global head of ETFs at Invesco, said Monday on CNBC’s “Halftime Report.”Â
Bitcoin is now 1% of all ETF assets
Here’s the math: U.S. ETFs now have a little over $10 trillion in assets under management. With spot bitcoin ETFs now accounting for more than $100 billion in assets, bitcoin is now about 1% of the assets under management of the entire ETF universe.Â
That 1% is a significant milestone. For years, bitcoin advocates have been looking for ways to convince skeptics they should allocate a small portion of their portfolio to bitcoin.Â
A typical argument is that as assets under management have grown, investors should allocate 1% of their portfolio to bitcoin. The argument is that if bitcoin goes bust, losing 1% is no big deal, but the scarcity value of the cryptocurrency leaves it with a bigger chance of increasing in value over time.
It’s now becoming a bit easier to make that kind of argument, with bitcoin accounting for 1% of the assets under management in ETFs.
 “So for people asking that question, if you don’t own it, you’re 1% under allocated to bitcoin,” Hartigan said.
Why have bitcoin ETFs been such a hit?
 The ETFs’ popularity boils down to pent-up demand and an up market.
“I think everything lined up perfectly for these products coming to market,” Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, said Monday on “ETF Edge.” “Because, remember, you had over 10 years of pent-up demand here, because the first bitcoin ETF filing was all the way back in 2013, and this has been talked about ad nauseam over the past decade. So I think that created a lot of pent-up demand.”
A relentless up market was the second catalyst.Â
“Bitcoin itself has obviously performed very well,” Geraci said, noting that the crypto has more than doubled this year. “That clearly helps. There’s just been a ton of coverage in this space that helps generate investor interest. So all of the ingredients have been there. It’s really been a perfect recipe.”
Bitcoin backers’ hopes for 2025
The bitcoin and ETF industry are expecting even more inflows in 2025 on two hopes. First, they want institutions to loosen investment requirements and permit clients to own and trade bitcoin. Second, they seek a friendlier regulatory environment.
“The ETF has become the liquidity vehicle for holding the digital assets themselves,” Hartigan said on CNBC’s “ETF Edge” program. “It’s liquid, that’s regulated, and I think that really touts the benefits of the ETF. So, hopefully that’s the kind of that intermediary vehicle that we needed to give the institutional marketplace more access to digital coin.”
President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that venture capitalist David Sacks will be the crypto “czar” and the plan to nominate Paul Atkins to be chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has bitcoin enthusiasts believing that a much friendlier regulatory environment is coming.
Atkins, a former Republican SEC commissioner, has been supportive of bringing more regulatory clarity to the crypto market.
“If the SEC were more accommodating and would, you know, deal straightforwardly with these various [crypto] firms, I think it would be a lot better to have things happen here in the United States rather than outside,” Atkins said in a “Kibbe on Liberty” podcast in February 2023.Â
In that podcast, Atkins expressed support for a digital currency that is not controlled by the government.
“To have something that is not controlled by any particular entity, is not centralized, is a trustless type of product, where you have all the different miners and validators who are validating different transactions and appending them to the blockchain, makes a lot of sense,” he said.
Will bitcoin ETFs pass gold ETFs in 2025?
With spot bitcoin ETFs now over $100 billion in AUM, Geraci said there is a real chance bitcoin ETFs will pass gold ETFs next year.
“For context, the physical gold ETF category, which has been around for over 20 years, that has about $125 billion in assets [compared to $100 billion in spot bitcoin ETFs],” Geraci said.
“So, it’s not inconceivable to think that spot bitcoin ETFs will surpass gold ETFs sometime over the next several months, which is just astounding when you think about it, when I think about the demand here,” he added.