BNP Paribas, the second largest European bank, has bought exposure to bitcoin through a spot ETF, according to recent 13F filings with the SEC .
The filings show that BNP Paribas bought the iShares bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) from BlackRock.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet”>
ONLY IN: Europe's second largest bank, BNP Paribas, reports exposure to twitter.com/hashtag/bitcoin?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#bitcoin ETFs in 13F filings.
This is just beginning pic.twitter.com/4zi1EkAc07
– bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1785952365951975884?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>May 2, 2024
US bitcoin Spot ETFs have seen immense success since their launch earlier this year, surpassing $200 billion in cumulative volume.
Under regulations, large institutional investors managing more than $100 million must disclose their holdings quarterly through 13F filings. Following their long-awaited debut, bitcoin investors have been waiting for these filings to see which institutions are allocating funds to bitcoin ETFs.
Previous first quarter 2024 filings revealed purchases by asset managers, family offices and banks such as Park Avenue Securities, Inscription Capital, Wedbush Private Capital and American National Bank.
Now BNP Paribas has joined, Europe's second largest bank with more than $600 billion in assets under management. Investment of $40,000 in IBIT is relatively small, it is important that one of Europe's largest banks begins to gain exposure to bitcoin through an ETF.
According to analysts, more 13F filings ahead of the May 15 deadline could reveal substantially higher institutional participation in spot bitcoin ETFs. The filings so far indicate growing acceptance of bitcoin among traditional financial players.
<img src="https://bitcoinmagazine.com/.image/c_fit%2Ch_800%2Cw_1200/MjA0MzE5MTg5MTE1NDc5NDkz/bm-x-unchained-article-cta—learn-more.png”>
If more major banks and asset managers were to disclose bitcoin allocations, it would further validate bitcoin as an investable asset class.
Adoption by old guard institutions could spur broader mainstream acceptance and additional inflows into regulated bitcoin investment vehicles. While bitcoin ETF purchases remain a small fraction of portfolios so far, the fact that traditional giants like BNP Paribas are participating is telling.
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″>
