Bitwise Shares On-Chain Wallet Address for Bitcoin ETF – Unchained

Bitwise becomes the first issuer to share the on-chain address of its Bitcoin ETF holdings in a move to increase public transparency.

Crypto investment manager Bitwise has shared the on-chain wallet address of its Bitcoin exchange-traded fund BITB.

Announcement: Today the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) becomes the first U.S. bitcoin ETF to publish the bitcoin addresses of its holdings.

Now anyone can verify BITB’s holdings and flows directly on the blockchain.

Onchain transparency is core to Bitcoin’s ethos. We’re proud to… pic.twitter.com/1JTUh3zvDE

— Bitwise (@BitwiseInvest) January 24, 2024

The wallet shows that BITB has 11,858 BTC in the fund, valued at over $465 million at the time of writing. 

“Now anyone can verify BITB’s holdings and flows directly on the blockchain. Onchain transparency is core to Bitcoin’s ethos. We’re proud to walk the walk with BITB,” said Bitwise on X.

The company also said publishing the fund’s on-chain address was the first step towards increasing public transparency, and that it hopes to do more as infrastructure evolves. Bitwise is working with Proof-of-Funds infrastructure firm Hoeski on providing real-time cryptographic attestations. 

The move, which makes Bitwise the first spot Bitcoin ETF issuer to share their wallet address with the public, was seen as a welcome development by members of the crypto community.

Some users even went so far as to donate small amounts of Bitcoin to the Bitwise ETF, sending satoshis in instalments of “42069” which amounts to around $16. A satoshi, or “sat” is the smallest unit of measure for the price of Bitcoin and 100 million sats equals one Bitcoin. 

Since revealing their #Bitcoin address, the Bitwise ETF address has received 10 “donations” totaling 268,002 satoshis (~$107) 👀

Numerous tips have been in denominations of 42069 and 6969 sats 😅 pic.twitter.com/4b5buAcIIl

— Bitcoin News (@BitcoinNewsCom) January 25, 2024

Others speculated that the public wallet address could result in the fund’s Net Asset Value (NAV) being manipulated by users sending funds to the address. 

“I’m trying to wrap my head around it because the way assets get into an ETF is only through the AP [Authorized Participant] giving the issuer money. This bypasses all that but no new shares created,” said Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas on X.

BITB has over $360 million in assets under management (AUM) and is the fourth-largest spot Bitcoin ETF after Grayscale, BlackRock and Fidelity.