Q2 Institutional Bitcoin ETF Holdings Hit New Highs, Retail Investors Still Dominate Capital Flow

In the second quarter of 2025, investment advisors drove institutional Holdings of Bitcoin to reach $33.6 billion through ETFs.

Data shared by Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart on August 25 shows that institutions added a total of 57,375 BTC Holdings across all tracked categories.

Bloomberg Intelligence shows that the current Bitcoin ETF holdings of investment advisors amount to 17.4 billion USD, almost double the 9 billion USD holdings of hedge fund managers.

Among the newly entering institutional investors, Brevan Howard Capital Management has become the largest institutional shareholder of Bitcoin ETF. As of June 30, the fund management company increased its holdings in BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) by 71%, to 37.5 million shares, with a market value of $2.3 billion.

Harvard Management Company entered the Bitcoin ETF space with $117 million in IBIT holdings. Harvard's Bitcoin allocation is comparable to its holdings in major U.S. stocks, including $310 million in Microsoft and nearly $235 million in Amazon, accounting for approximately 8% of its reported investment portfolio.

The university's endowment fund currently holds Bitcoin with a market value exceeding that of gold, and at the end of the quarter, the value of its holdings in SPDR Gold Trust (gold ETF) was approximately $102 million.

Seyffart also emphasized that investment advisors have become the largest holders of Bitcoin spot ETFs so far. In the second quarter, investment advisors added 37,156 BTC holdings, bringing the total holdings to 161,909 BTC.

He stated that among the 15 categories of institutions listed, the holdings of "almost all categories" increased in the second quarter, with only the pension funds maintaining a holdings of 10.7 million dollars unchanged.

The allocation scale of Bitcoin ETF by brokerage firms reached 4.3 billion USD, ranking second in the institutional new Holdings, with an addition of 13,911 BTC. Banks ranked third with an addition of 2,476 BTC in new Holdings, and the market value of Bitcoin held through ETF shares is approximately 655 million USD.

The $17.4 billion Holdings of investment advisors exceeds the total Holdings of hedge funds, brokerages, and holding companies, marking that Bitcoin is gradually integrating into the professional wealth management system.

Seyffart pointed out that the $33.6 billion holdings data from institutional investors comes from the 13F filings, accounting for only 25% of the total Bitcoin ETF shares.

He added: "The remaining 75% of the shares are held by unreported entities, which are mainly retail investors."

Despite growing institutional interest in crypto assets, most of the funding flows into Bitcoin ETFs are still driven by retail investors.