• The SEC is confirmed to be considering whether or not Ethereum is a security, as part of the decision on whether to approve a spot ETH ETF. That rests largely on how the ‘Howey Test’ applies.

• Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated that higher rates may last longer due to persistent inflation. He also remarked that, "Credibility is everything for central banks." Unclear if that was supposed to be reassuring.

• Vanguard has hired Salim Ramji as their new CEO. Ramji is a former BlackRock exec who was instrumental in the IBIT launch. Perhaps he can change his new employer’s anti-bitcoin stance.

• Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan published his weekly memo, this one titled ‘Who’s Buying Bitcoin ETFs (According to 13F Filings)’.

• El Salvador has mined 474 BTC ($29m) over three years, thanks to their volcano-powered geothermal bitcoin mining plant. It appears that President Bukele is shaping up to be either a heroic, Latin American Lee Kuan Yew, or a James Bond villain.

The Whales were hungry yesterday. 5k+ BTC was redistributed back to them. Meanwhile the Sharks were fasting; losing 8.5k BTC.

MSTR was up again yesterday. Unusual for a day that BTC declined, but they were buoyed by the announcement of their inclusion in the MSCI World Index.

🇺🇸 United States

🥇Ark

ARKB came out swinging on Tuesday, with monstrous inflows of 2,164 BTC ($133m) - the biggest day for any ETF in weeks.

 🔻 Grayscale

GBTC was its usual self, losing 825 BTC ($51m). They’ve sold off 330k BTC since launch.

🧮 Total

Tuesday brought net inflows of 1630 BTC ($100m). GBTC was the sole source of outflows. ARKB did the heavy lifting for inflows, aided by minor contributions from FBTC (130 BTC), and Invesco (90 BTC). IBIT was flat on the day.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong

Over in Hong Kong, AMC was flat on Tuesday. Harvest lost 34 BTC ($2m), while Bosera Hashkey data hasn’t come through yet so we’ll update you with their flows tomorrow.

The penultimate day of 13F filings for Q1 did not disappoint.

100 more came in yesterday, and rest assured we scoured them all. Here’s what we found:

Two more of the Big Five Canadian banks filed yesterday. First was TD Bank, with a miserly $100k in IBIT. Scotia Bank then followed up with $1.5m across GBTC, IBIT, and FBTC.

Invesco, of Invesco-Galaxy Bitcoin ETF fame, filed too. Somewhat surprisingly, their own ETF (BTCO) was absent. And even more so: they have $1.5m in GBTC - a direct competitor. Other ETF issuers to file thus far (BlackRock, Van Eck, Ark) all exclusively own their own homegrown product.

Another notable entrant yesterday was Equitable Holdings, a publicly listed insurance company with $930b AUM. They dipped their toe in this quarter, with $1m in GBTC.

Finally, the biggest news of the day was that the State of Wisconsin Investment Board has $141m in IBIT and GBTC. SWIB manages the retirement savings of Wisconsin state and local government employees, and is the 9th largest state pension fund in the United States. And now, they are the second largest bitcoin ETF holder in the world (excluding market makers and ETF issuers).

The bitcoin constituency just grew by 700,000 Wisconsinites. Pretty big deal I’d say.

That’s the state of bitcoin flows for this Wednesday.

I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

— Julian