Jai Sahu
Bitwise, a crypto asset management firm, made history on Wednesday by becoming the first among the ten spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers to publicly disclose its digital wallet address. The San Francisco-based firm tweeted a screenshot showing the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF’s (BITB) bitcoin address along with holdings (11,858 bitcoin) as of January 23. The company stated, “Anyone can now verify the fund’s holdings and flows directly on the blockchain.”
“Onchain transparency is core to bitcoin’s ethos,” Bitwise continued. “We’re proud to walk the walk with BITB. Publishing on-chain addresses is a first step toward increasing public transparency As infrastructure evolves, we hope to do more, such as working with firms like Hoeski to provide real-time cryptographic attestations.”
Bitcoin, and with that the whole crypto ecosystem, was designed with the goal of an unprecedented level of transparency, which is why many participants in the industry often demand detailed insights into the financials behind most products and services, including the newly launched ETFs.
Along with the spot bitcoin ETFs came concerns from at least a few that the tradfi industry might do to bitcoin what it’s done for other assets – use fancy packaging and derivatives to transform once wholesome products into something unrecognizable. The most recent example of note would be the mortgage backed security bubble that led to the global financial crisis 15 years ago.
It remains to be seen what lies ahead for bitcoin, but industry experts for now are applauding the move by Bitwise.
“An important first step toward onchain accounting,” prominent Silicon Valley investor and former chief technology officer at Coinbase Balaji Srinivasan wrote.
“Love this from Bitwise,” said Nate Geraci, president of investment advisory firm ETF Store. “Transparency of ETF wrapper plus onchain transparency. Another example of tradfi-defi bridge building.”
Arkham Intelligence had already pinpointed the bitcoin wallet addresses associated with Bitwise, BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton earlier this week. Today, the company expanded its findings by revealing wallet addresses linked to VanEck and WisdomTree as well.
Excluding any recent transactions, Bitwise currently holds 11,858 bitcoins, valued at approximately $474 million based on the current bitcoin price, which is just under $40,000. Bitwise stands out as the most successful cryptocurrency-native ETF issuer to date, attracting a remarkable $518 billion in inflows over the past eight days. Among spot ETFs, only those offered by BlackRock and Fidelity have garnered more significant inflows, totaling around $1.8 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively.