A.SREENIVASA REDDY (ABU DHABI)
Abu Dhabi-based investment entities have continued to maintain sizeable positions in Bitcoin through their exposure to, with their combined holdings valued at about $764 million at the end of June.
The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, which trades on Nasdaq under the ticker IBIT, is an exchange-traded product that seeks to reflect the performance of the price of Bitcoin. It provides investors with exposure to Bitcoin without requiring them to directly buy, store or manage the cryptocurrency. The fund was launched in January 2024 and carries a sponsor fee of 0.25%.
According to the latest Form 13F regulatory filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on August 14, Mubadala Investment Company continued to hold 14,721,917 units of the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF.
Form 13F is a quarterly disclosure required from institutional investment managers exercising investment discretion over at least $100 million in securities covered by the rule. The filing discloses information including the securities held, the number of shares and their fair market value at the end of the reporting quarter.
Mubadala’s holding in IBIT was valued at $490.09 million as of June 30, the reporting date covered by the filing.
The number of units held by Mubadala was unchanged from the previous quarter. Its filing for the quarter ended March 31 also showed a holding of 14,721,917 IBIT units.
Separately, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council continued to hold 8,218,712 units of the Bitcoin ETF, according to its latest regulatory filing. The position was valued at $273.60 million as of June 30.
The council also maintained the same number of IBIT units as in the previous quarter. Its March-end filing showed holdings of 8,218,712 units.
Together, Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council held 22,940,629 IBIT units, with a combined quarter-end value of $763.69 million.
Both filings valued the ETF units at approximately $33.29 each, corresponding to IBIT’s Nasdaq closing price on June 30.
IBIT closed at $35.63 on Friday, August 14, about 7% above its June 30 closing price.
Assuming Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council continued to hold the same number of units reported at the end of June, their combined IBIT holdings would have been worth approximately $817.37 million at Friday’s closing price, about $53.7 million more than their reported June-end value.
Bitcoin itself declined during the second quarter of 2026. The cryptocurrency closed at about $68,233 on March 31 and $58,559 on June 30, representing a decline of roughly 14.2% over the quarter. It subsequently recovered part of those losses and was trading at about $63,066 early on Sunday, around 7.7% above its June-end level.
BlackRock says IBIT is intended to provide Bitcoin exposure through an exchange-traded product while simplifying the operational and custody complexities associated with holding the cryptocurrency directly. According to latest official data, net assets of IBIT stood at approximately $46.96 billion.
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products allow investors to gain exposure to movements in the price of Bitcoin through securities traded on conventional stock exchanges, without directly buying or storing the cryptocurrency.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved the listing and trading of a number of spot Bitcoin products in January 2024.
Besides BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, major offerings include Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF, VanEck Bitcoin Trust, WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund and Franklin Bitcoin ETF.