Via sfbwmag.com
Schonfeld Advisors sells 20% of Bitcoin ETF holdings, drops to $384M
The New York hedge fund trimmed its spot Bitcoin ETF position in Q2 2024, joining a broader wave of institutional rebalancing after a record-breaking launch quarter.
Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, one of New York’s larger multi-strategy hedge funds, quietly trimmed its spot Bitcoin ETF exposure during the second quarter of 2024. The firm’s position fell from roughly $479 million to approximately $384 million, a reduction of around 20% that showed up in 13F filings made public in August 2024.
How the position broke down
In Q1 2024, Schonfeld’s Bitcoin ETF exposure was split between two products: roughly $248 million in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and $231.8 million in Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC). That combined $479 million stake made the firm one of the largest institutional holders in the space right out of the gate, in the weeks immediately following the January 2024 ETF approvals.
By the end of Q2, that total had been cut to the $360-384 million range. The firm maintained exposure across multiple products, including FBTC, IBIT, ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), and Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB), suggesting the reduction was a sizing decision rather than a shift in conviction about the product category itself.
Schonfeld manages more than $22 billion in assets overall, which means even its peak Bitcoin ETF position represented a relatively small slice of the total book.
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Schonfeld wasn’t alone
The Q2 rebalancing trend ran well beyond one firm. Millennium Management, another major multi-strategy fund, cut its Bitcoin ETF holdings by approximately 40% over the same period.
Worth noting: 13F filings only show long equity positions and have a 45-day lag after the quarter closes. They don’t capture short positions, options strategies, or any off-exchange exposure. What looks like a reduction in Bitcoin ETF holdings on paper could, in practice, be part of a more complex hedged position. The filings show one side of the ledger.
What institutional rebalancing actually signals
Schonfeld’s continued presence across four separate Bitcoin ETF products—FBTC, IBIT, ARKB, and BITB—is also worth noting. A firm that had turned genuinely bearish on the asset class would consolidate into one product or exit entirely. Maintaining diversified exposure across issuers suggests the firm is managing the position, not unwinding it.