BNY Mellon Invests in Spot Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock and Grayscale

The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) alias BNY Mellon, one of the oldest American financial institutions with more than $45 trillion in assets under custody, is a direct investor of Bitcoin (BTC). The company disclosed the Bitcoin investment in form 13F holdings report, filed with the United States Securities and  Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 25, 2024.

Notably, BNY Mellon has tapped the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) (NYSE: GBTC) and the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) by BlackRock Inc (NYSE: BLK) to get exposure to the flagship coin. However, the company did not disclose the finer details of the investment in the various spot Bitcoin ETFs.

BNY Mellon and the US-based Spot Bitcoin ETFs

With the fact that Grayscale’s GBTC has not registered a single cash inflow since the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs by the US SEC earlier this year, it is safe to assume the bank has been a long-term Bitcoin holder. Furthermore, Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust was created back in 2013 and currently has about 300,612 Bitcoins in the trust.

On the other hand, BlackRock’s IBIT has existed since early January and currently holds 274,462 Bitcoins, worth more than $17 billion. Presumably, BNY Mellon could be holding more of IBIT than GBTC since the latter has a higher sponsor fee of about 1.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the United States-based spot Bitcoin ETFs have experienced slow growth in the recent past fueled by accelerated GBTC daily sales. On Thursday, the top five spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a total cash outflow of about $217 million. The only exception was Franklin Bitcoin ETF (EZBC), which registered a cash inflow of about $1.9 million and currently has around 5,133 Bitcoins in its portfolio.

Rough day across the board for the Cointucky derby and the #Bitcoin ETFs yesterday. 5 ETFs saw outflows for a total of -$217 million. Franklin was only ETF with an inflow at $1.9 million. pic.twitter.com/9NF9iXi2GN

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) April 26, 2024

Market Picture

The disclosure by BNY Mellon on its spot Bitcoin ETF holdings did not have a direct impact on the underlying BTC value as it was reported for the first quarter. Nonetheless, the disclosure is likely to influence other banks and financial institutions to adopt the spot Bitcoin ETFs to hedge against the ever-rising inflation.

As Coinspeaker previously reported, the anticipated interest rate cuts later this year will have a profound impact on the Bitcoin price. Moreover, the cryptocurrency industry is already in a bull cycle following the fourth halving event last weekend.

According to the latest market data Bitcoin price had slipped around 1.2 percent in the past few hours to trade around $63,726 on Friday during the early New York session. The flagship coin is likely to continue in a correction mode in the coming weeks towards the support level between $60k and $61.

In case this support range fails to hold, Bitcoin price will be in for further correction before a rebound to a new ATH later this year.

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