Bitwise releases wallet addresses for spot Bitcoin ETF holdings

Asset management firm Bitwise has released Bitcoin (BTC) addresses for its BTC exchange-traded fund, two weeks after its listings became available for trading.

In a January 24 post, the company announced that “anyone can verify” holdings for the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF under BITB on the New York Stock Exchange's Arca. At the time of publication, the address provided by Bitwise holds 11,858.63 BTC, worth $465 million.

“Onchain transparency is at the core of Bitcoin's ethics,” said Bitwise. “We are proud to walk with BITB. […] Publishing on-chain addresses is a first step in increasing public transparency.

Announcement: Today the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) will become the first US Bitcoin ETF to publish its holdings of Bitcoin addresses.

Now anyone can verify BITB holdings and it will flow directly onto the blockchain.

Onchain transparency is central to Bitcoin's ethos. We are proud… pic.twitter.com/1JTUh3zvDE

— Bitwise (@BitwiseInvest) January 24, 2024

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 10 approved Bitwise's spot Bitcoin ETF along with 10 applications from asset management firms. It is unclear whether other companies plan to release BTC addresses to investment vehicles in the future. On January 22, Arkham Intelligence said it had identified several wallets linked to ETFs, including those from Bitwise, BlackRock, Fidelity and Franklin Templeton.

Related: Bitwise launches crypto ETF media campaign with ‘world's most interesting man'

Bitwise co-founder and CEO Hunter Horsley said on X that the company released the BTC address in response to “clear feedback” from investors. In the year An X poll launched by Horsley on January 23 showed that 91.1% of 2,416 respondents were in favor of BTC holdings being made public.

“Bitwise is the first and certainly not the last to post their Bitcoin address to BITB,” ATF analyst James Seifert said on X.

About seven days after launch, BTB was in the top 5% of ETFs by assets under management by 2023. In its seventh day of trading, net inflows reached nearly $76 million, with Grayscale's GBTC leading the way. Net outlets.

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