Spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) allow users to invest in Bitcoin and track its spot price without holding $BTC directly, sparing them from all issues that come with $BTC holding — potential losses to hackers and fraudsters, the necessity to keep one’s wallet password in safety and so on — by simply buying shares of those ETFs.
On Jan. 11, the SEC approved the launch of these ETFs, the biggest of which was rolled out by BlackRock — IBIT. Bitcoin inflows into these funds have been tremendous since their start. On March 15, the overall inflows into nine of them comprised 1,434 $BTC worth $97.15 million. BlackRock added a lot more — 4,967 $BTC evaluated at more than $336.5 million, and currently IBIT contains 228.613 $BTC equal to approximately $15.5 billion.
Mow sells MicroStrategy's "Bitcoin shares"
Besides, Mow stated that he had sold his MicroStrategy shares (MSTR), the company led by Bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor. Since August 2020, it has been consistently purchasing Bitcoin with cash and adding $BTC to its balance sheet.
Sold it. 😜
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) March 16, 2024
Five days ago, the company acquired another massive $BTC chuck of 12,000 coins, paying $821.7 million for that at an average price of $68,477 per coin. This Bitcoin was bought using proceeds from convertible notes and spare cash reserves of the company. Now, MicroStrategy holds a total of 205,000 $BTC worth almost $10 billion.
As reported by U.Today on Friday, the company has announced a new debt offering to acquire still more Bitcoin for long-term storage on its balance sheet. Selling MSRT by Mow in favor of Bitcoin ETFs sounds like a step taken by a person who prefers to be as close to $BTC as possible. Besides, as an “original gangster,” Mow is likely to be holding a large amount of Bitcoin directly.