State of Wisconsin Buys Nearly $100M Worth of BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF

The US state of Wisconsin purchased 94,562 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in the first quarter of the year, a filing shows. The shares are worth approximately $100 million.

Bitcoin rose 1% on the news and is now trading at $61,957, down 1.7% over the past 24 hours as new warmer-than-expected inflation data arrived in the US morning hours.

Wisconsin, which filed its quarterly 13F report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, became the first state to disclose the purchase of bitcoin. The investment board also purchased shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) worth approximately $64 million.

“Normally you won’t be able to buy these big-fish institutions at 13Fs for a year or so (when the ETF gains more liquidity), but as we’ve seen, these are no ordinary launches,” Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote in a write-up. to post About X. “Good sign, expect more as institutions tend to move in herds.”

The investment board, also known as SWIB, was founded in 1951 and currently manages more than $156 billion in assets, according to its website. It manages the assets of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS), State Investment Fund (SIF) and other state trust funds.

The statement comes as March 15 is the deadline for institutional investment managers to declare quarterly holdings with at least $100 million in assets under management. The market is watching these announcements to see if any major TradFi funds have invested in Bitcoin ETFs since their launch earlier this year.

UPDATE (May 14, 14:55 UTC): Adds comments and more information about the state investment board.