Brevan Howard Dominates: Hedge Fund Snags $2.3B in IBIT Shares—Largest Holder Now
Wall Street's crypto appetite just got a whale-sized bite. Brevan Howard—the hedge fund that once scoffed at Bitcoin—now holds a staggering $2.3 billion stake in BlackRock’s IBIT, making it the ETF’s largest shareholder.
Talk about a pivot. The same firm that hedged against 'risky assets' now hoards Bitcoin exposure like a digital Scrooge McDuck. Guess even old-money titans can’t resist the siren song of 24/7 trading and institutional-grade FOMO.
One question remains: When do the rest of the suits start copying their homework?
More Entities gain and increase exposure to IBIT
Meanwhile, Brevan Howard was not the only firm that increased its stake in IBIT during the second quarter of 2025. Based on SEC filings, Hong Kong-based Avenir owned 16.55 million IBIT shares worth over $1 billion as of June 30.
This marks an increase from the 14.76 million shares it held back in March. Interestingly, the firm also reported a new IBIT put position worth $12.2 million, but its FBTC position remained at $5.5 million.
However, not every firm increased its IBIT holdings. Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala disclosed that its 8.726 million IBIT shares did not increase since the last filing in May.
On the other hand, Al Warda Investments, an investment fund that listed Abu Dhabi Investment Council as its manager, disclosed that it owned 2.41 million shares of IBIT worth $147.5 million on June 30. Mubadala owns the Abu Dhabi Investment Council.
Nevertheless, the biggest news of exposure to IBIT has been from the Ivy League, with Harvard disclosing that it now has over $117 million stake in IBIT. This is more than the University’s exposure to tech giants such as Google and Nvidia.
Several analysts believe it is a watershed moment for the Bitcoin ETFs. According to Macroscope on X, “It’s certainly one of the most important ownership disclosures since the inception of the Bitcoin ETFs. It will have an impact in the endowment space as well as the broader asset management sector.”
IBIT hits $90 billion in AUM
Meanwhile, the massive interest in IBIT from several institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds drove the BlackRock product to a new peak of over $90 billion AUM. This was enough to make IBIT the 20th largest ETF product out of over 4,400 ETFs in the US.
According to the ETF expert, Nate Geraci, this is a massive milestone for IBIT, particularly given that the product achieved this milestone in just 19 months of existence, making it the best-performing ETF by a large margin.
However, the recent decline in BTC prices, which has seen the flagship asset fall to $117,000 from as high as $123,000 on August 14, means that the AUM value might have dropped briefly. Still, there is a general sense of bullishness surrounding IBIT, which is evident in its minimal outflows compared to other bitcoin ETFs.
Farside Investors’ data shows that the product only saw three days of outflows between July 28 and August 14, and Geraci expects the fund to reach $100 billion in AUM soon.
Join Bybit now and claim a $50 bonus in minutes
