In a recent disclosure, Point72, the $34 billion hedge fund owned by billionaire Steve Cohen and famously known as the New York Mets owner, revealed that it held $77.5 million worth of shares in the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) as of the end of Q1 2021. This revelation comes after several other prominent hedge funds, such as Paul Singer’s Elliott Capital and Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management, also announced their investments in spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Notably, Millennium Management currently holds approximately $2 billion in these new funds, which places them among the largest institutional holders as of March 31, 2021. According to data compiled by a leading bitcoin brokerage firm called River, out of the top 25 hedge funds in the United States, 13 of them invested in these spot ETFs during Q1 2021. Besides Elliott Capital and Millennium Management, other notable firms included in this list are Fortress Investment Group and Schonfeld Strategic Advisors. It should be noted that while some may interpret these hedge fund purchases as a long-term bet on rising prices, there could be other motivations behind these transactions, such as market making, hedging, yield generation, or even short-term flipping. This report has been edited by Stephen Alpher.
Based on the information provided, it can be inferred that the increasing popularity of spot bitcoin ETFs has caught the attention of major hedge funds in the US, with Point72 being the latest high-profile player to join this trend. This trend also highlights the growing acceptance and legitimacy of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, as traditional financial institutions and players continue to invest significant sums in this space. Further analysis is required to determine the impact of these investments on the overall performance and value of the spot bitcoin ETFs, as well as the wider cryptocurrency market.
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