Bitwise first to disclose BTC addresses for spot BTC ETF

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Asset management company Bitwise has disclosed the addresses of its spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF), becoming the first among the 10 issuers of spot BTC ETFs to take this step.

“Announcement: Today the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) becomes the first U.S. bitcoin ETF to publish the bitcoin addresses of its holdings,” said Bitwise in a Wednesday social media post.

Bitwise announced that the holdings for its Bitcoin ETF traded as BITB on the New York Stock Exchange Arca can be verified by anyone. As of the latest update, the disclosed address held 11,858.63 BTC, valued at around $465 million.

“Onchain transparency is core to Bitcoin’s ethos,” said Bitwise. “We’re proud to walk the walk with BITB. […] Publishing on-chain addresses is a first step toward increasing public transparency.”

Bitwise Bitcoin’s wallet address received various tips and donations shortly after being made public, including unique Bitcoin ordinals and rare satoshis.

Currently, the wallet contains donations totaling $6,083 and has over 16,000 entries. These entries include two RSIC airdrops, one Bitcoin Punk, one Bitcoin Burials, one Quadkey and more. The account also has thousands of BRC-20 entries, but there are no valid or active BRC-20 balances in the account.

Previously, Bitwise’s spot Bitcoin ETF, along with 10 other applications from asset management companies, received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 10.

Later, on January 22, Arkham Intelligence asserted that it had identified various wallets associated with Bitwise’s ETF, as well as those from BlackRock, Fidelity and Franklin Templeton.

A response to investor feedback

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said on X that they shared the BTC address due to “clear feedback” from investors. A poll by Horsley on Tuesday revealed that 91.1 percent of 2,416 respondents supported making the BTC holdings public.

“Bitwise is the first and almost certainly not the last to post their Bitcoin address for BITB,” said ETF analyst James Seyffart on X.

Many in the crypto community praised Bitwise for making its ETF holdings address public. However, some noted a single 12,000 BTC transfer, indicating that the asset manager may not have conducted a test transaction to verify the address.

Some raised concerns about Bitwise’s choice of using a single-key wallet instead of a multisig one, which is generally considered more secure. A multisig wallet, akin to a bank’s safe deposit box, necessitates multiple private keys to be used simultaneously for access. This additional layer of security enhances the safety of storing crypto assets by requiring two or more private keys.

Around a week after its debut, BITB ranked in the top five percent of ETFs by assets under management in 2023. On the seventh day of trading, all spot BTC ETFs experienced approximately $76 million in net outflows, with Grayscale’s GBTC leading in the highest net outflows.

Last week, BITB ranked in the top five percent of exchange-traded funds (ETF) by assets under management (AUM) launched in 2023. Horsley emphasized that the total assets flowing into BITB reached $370 million at that time.

Nate Geraci, president of the investment advising firm ETF Store, said on X that BITB has outperformed many ETFs introduced in 2023. Geraci noted that with an AUM of $355 million, the ETF would rank among the top 25 out of the 540 ETFs launched in 2023.

Meanwhile, Seyffart revealed that the trading volume for the new spot Bitcoin ETF products totaled $10 billion.