Numerous U.S.-traded exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are loading up on shares in the world’s top crypto firms.
According to ETF.com, hundreds of funds have invested in publicly-listed companies that are holding BTC on their balance sheets. As of this writing 88 ETFs hold MicroStrategy shares, while 144 ETFs hold Square, and 222 ETFs hold Tesla. Sixteen ETFs have direct exposure to Bitcoin mining stocks.
Almost 200 ETFs hold shares in BlackRock, which recently profited $360,457 after starting to “dabble a bit” in crypto.
Top-performing ETFs with crypto exposure
Nine funds are exposed to both crypto mining stocks and firms with BTC on their balance sheets.
As a share of its overall portfolio, the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK) has the greatest exposure to crypto. Seven of BLOK’s top 10 allocations are in leading crypto firms, including Galaxy Digital, Marathon Digital, Voyager Digital, Hut 8 Mining, Hive Blockchain, Riot Blockchain, and Argo Blockchain. These stocks represent one-third of BLOK’s capital.
The fund describes its investments as targeting “transformational data sharing technologies.”
BLOK is among the top-performing ETFs of 2021 so far, gaining 71.7% since the start of the year. So far in 2021 it’s recorded the eighth-highest returns among all ETFs — and it ranks second if you exclude leveraged and inverse products. Among ETFs, BLOK is the single-largest hodler of both MicroStrategy and Marathon’s stock.
The Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF (BLCN) is the only other crypto-exposed ETF that ranks among the top 100 ETFs by YTD performance when excluding inverse and leveraged funds, coming in at 82nd with a YTD gain of 23.15%.
BLCN currently holds $5.63 million worth of Marathon stock, $5.4m in Microstrategy, and $5.24 million in Square.
Largest holders by total value of assets
When measured by total value of assets, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) is the ETF with the heaviest allocations to crypto-exposed firms. The VTI currently represents $2.77 billion worth of Tesla, $478 million of Square, $29.4 million of Microstrategy, and $11.38 million of Riot Blockchain. VTI also owns $516 million worth of Blackwater.
The iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT) is the second-largest fund by overall exposure to crypto, holding $450 million worth of Tesla, $4.4 million of Microstrategy, $3.86 million of Marathon, and $3.12 million in Riot.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is yet to issue a verdict on seven applications for Bitcoin ETFs, including Fidelity Investments, Skybridge Capital, WisdomTree, Morgan Stanley and NYDIG, VanEck, and Valkyrie Digital Assets.
The Purpose Bitcoin ETF began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange in mid-February, and has accumulated roughly $1 billion worth of BTC since inception. Canada’s Ninepoint Partners and CI have also announced plans to convert their Bitcoin funds into ETFs.
