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Bitcoin ETFs were approved in January by the SEC and since then, institutional investors have shown increasing interest in the funds. Marco Verch/flickr

KEY POINTS

  • Grayscale's GBTC holds the most number of Bitcoins as per the chart
  • Internationally, Canada's Purpose BTCC is the Bitcoin holdings leader
  • Traditional financial institutions have recently disclosed their massive BTC ETF holdings

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have come a long way just over four months since their approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – the ETFs collectively hold more than 1 million Bitcoins or 5% of the world's total BTC supply.

MicroStrategy founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor posted a chart Monday that showed a total of 32 global spot BTC ETFs hold 1,002,343 Bitcoins as of May 24. Most of the BTC are held by American spot Bitcoin ETF issuers, including BlackRock's popular IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC.

Decrypt has verified the data posted by Saylor based on public records and corroborated by data from Coinglass's BTC ETF dashboard. According to the chart, the total value of the Bitcoin ETFs' BTC holdings are at $69,161,667,000.

The chart notes that Grayscale's previously unpopular GBTC is the holder of 289,040 Bitcoins, while IBIT, which has been a top choice for many retail investors since the funds launched, holds 287,168 BTC. Outside the United States, Canadian Purpose's BTCC leads the way with over 27,000 BTC holdings, followed by ETC Group's BTCE that holds over 20,800 Bitcoins.

The Bitcoin community on X (formerly Twitter) are celebrating the major milestone. One user said Saylor has just "casually" dropped a "new naming convention for 1 million $BTC." The tech magnate referred to a million Bitcoins as "1 Nakamoto," seemingly a tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of the world's first decentralized and largest digital asset by market value.

Another user said the holdings signal "institutional acceptance" and the "growing trust of the general public in Bitcoin" as they are now integrating the digital coin into their investment portfolios. Other users celebrated the journey BTC has had since its introduction to the world by Nakamoto in a 2008 white paper.

News of the massive milestone for BTC ETFs comes amid the digital currency's struggle in the past few days to shoot past the $70,000-mark, which it achieved last week, ahead of the approval of spot ETFs for Ether (ETH), Bitcoin's closest rival.

For some Bitcoiners, the approval of spot ETH ETFs may be a bane for the digital asset. However, Saylor recently said he thinks "it may be better" for the asset since the new Ether funds "can serve as another line of defense" for Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, institutional interest on BTC ETFs has been apparent in recent weeks. Some of the country's key traditional financial institutions have disclosed their Bitcoin ETF holdings during the 13F season, including Millennium Management, which leads the pack with a staggering $2 billion portfolio.

Investment banking giant Morgan Stanley also disclosed it has some $270 million worth of Grayscale's GBTC, while the State of Wisconsin's Investment Board (SWIB) disclosed it holds nearly $100 million worth of IBIT.

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