Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, posted on X: Wow, a state pension bought $IBIT in first quarter. Normally you don’t get these big fish institutions in the 13Fs for a year or so (when the ETF gets more liquidity) but as we’ve seen these are no ordinary launches. Good sign, expect more, as institutions tend to move in herds.
Bitcoin Archive, a popular X account, also posted: “Now that the pension fund manager of the State of Wisconsin has disclosed its $162m #Bitcoin allocation, it’s only a matter of time before every single state pension fund makes the same move. Then every university endowment. Every family office. Every wealth manager. Fund manager. Every corporate treasury.”
MacroScope, another X analyst, called the investment “one of the most important disclosures for Bitcoin to date.”
This is a small part of a massive public investment fund (total value of all positions in the 13F filing is $37.8 billion). But the long-term importance cannot be overstated. Wisconsin is now the second-largest reporting holder of IBIT globally. This will be closely analyzed and widely discussed by other state investment boards. Watch for others to follow in coming quarters.