Wisconsin Investment Board Increases Bitcoin ETF Holdings to 6 Million Shares, Worth $340 Million

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) has significantly increased its investment in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), now holding over 6 million shares as of December 31, 2024, according to a 13F filing made public Friday. This marks a considerable rise from the 2.9 million shares held just three months earlier.

With the current share price of IBIT at $56.10, SWIB’s position is now valued at $340 million, and should bitcoin’s price stay around $98,000, the value of its stake would increase to approximately $588 million.

SWIB made headlines in 2024 when it became the first state pension fund to report purchasing bitcoin ETFs, initially acquiring 94,562 shares of IBIT along with some shares in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which it later sold off.

Following Wisconsin’s pioneering move, other state funds, including Michigan’s retirement system, have revealed their own bitcoin ETF holdings, such as shares in the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) and Grayscale’s bitcoin products.

Established in 1951, SWIB oversees assets totaling more than $156 billion, including funds for the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) and the State Investment Fund (SIF), and manages investments on behalf of state employees and various trust funds.

Today marks the deadline for institutional investors managing assets of $100 million or more to file their quarterly holdings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These filings are closely watched to determine whether more large-scale institutional players have added bitcoin ETFs to their portfolios since their debut in 2024.