Bitwise Unveils Bitcoin ETF Reserves Address, Prompts $6,000 in Digital Gifts

Bitwise, a leading investment management company, has become the first issuer of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to disclose the wallet address containing the reserves of its Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) fund. According to CoinDesk, the company has gained significant traction, attracting approximately $518 million to its fund within just eight days since the launch of exchange-traded Bitcoin funds. In terms of fund inflows, BITB lags behind only BlackRock and Fidelity, with respective amounts of $1.8 billion and $1.5 billion.

In a move toward greater transparency, Bitwise has taken the pioneering step of revealing the Bitcoin wallet address and its contents, totaling 11,858 BTC (approximately $474 million) as of January 23. This information is now accessible on the blockchain, allowing interested parties to independently verify the fund's assets and their movements.

Bitwise emphasized that this disclosure in the blockchain marks the initial stage in enhancing transparency. As the infrastructure continues to develop, the company intends to enable real-time verifications of the fund's reserves.

Following the public revelation of the Bitcoin address, users have sent digital "gifts" to the wallet, ranging from small amounts in cryptocurrency to assets in the form of Ordinals (such as web domains or collectible images). The cumulative value of these gifts has exceeded $6,000.

Meanwhile, the total amount of Bitcoin held in ten registered spot ETFs in the United States as of January 25 stands at 648,000 BTC, equivalent to approximately $25.9 billion, according to Buy Bitcoin Worldwide. The majority, comprising 523,000 bitcoins, is held by the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

Due to the elevated fees in the Grayscale fund, users have been withdrawing assets from it for several consecutive days. Analysts believe that this partly explains the current decline in the Bitcoin price to around $40,000.