Bitwise, an asset management company, has made the Bitcoin address for its spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) publicly available, approximately two weeks after the ETF became tradable. In a January 24 announcement, the company revealed that anyone can verify holdings in its Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, traded as BITB on the New York Stock Exchange Arca. As of the latest data, the provided address contains 11,858.63 BTC, equivalent to around $465 million. Bitwise emphasized the importance of on-chain transparency, aligning with Bitcoin's ethos, and expressed pride in partnering with BITB, considering the release of on-chain addresses as a step toward greater public transparency.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted approval to Bitwise's spot Bitcoin ETF offering on January 10, alongside 10 other applications from asset managers. The move towards public disclosure of BTC addresses for investment vehicles is still unclear, and it remains to be seen whether other companies will follow this practice. On January 22, Arkham Intelligence claimed to have identified multiple ETF-related wallets, including those of Bitwise, BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton.
Hunter Horsley, Bitwise's co-founder and CEO, stated that the release of the BTC address was a response to clear feedback from investors. A poll conducted by Horsley on January 23 through X showed that 91.1% of 2,416 respondents were in favor of publicly disclosing BTC holdings. While Bitwise is the first company to release a BITB Bitcoin address, ETF analyst James Seyffart suggested that it is unlikely to be the last. Approximately seven days after its launch, BITB ranks among the top 5% of ETFs by assets under management in 2023. Notably, all spot BTC ETFs experienced net outflows of around $76 million on their seventh day of trading, with Grayscale's GBTC leading in net outflows.
