A similar rebalancing process is taking place on the Ethereum side. ETHZilla announced that tech billionaire Peter Thiel and his associated Founders Fund have sold their entire 7.5% stake in the company. The company has also reduced its $ETH holdings through multiple sales since October.
However, some major players are not backing down. Michael Saylor’s company, Strategy, acquired an additional 2,486 $BTC this week, bringing its total Bitcoin holdings to 717,131 $BTC. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Investment Company and Al Warda Investments announced that they hold positions exceeding $1 billion in BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF by the end of the year.
On the Ethereum front, BitMine Immersion Technologies added 45,759 $ETH in a week, bringing its total holdings to 4.4 million $ETH. Approximately 3 million of this amount was reportedly staked, providing additional returns.
BlackRock also made progress on its plans for a yield-based Ethereum product in the US, filing an updated S-1 application for the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF. A BlackRock-affiliated entity reportedly provided $100,000 in initial capital to the fund by purchasing 4,000 seed shares at $25 each.
Experts point out that while these steps from the institutional side may send positive signals in the long term, the fact that Bitcoin and Ethereum are still approximately 50% and 60% below their peaks respectively suggests that it may be too early to say that the downtrend is completely over.
*This is not investment advice.