Key Points
- Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investments is the 7th largest holder of BlackRock Bitcoin ETF, suggesting more Bitcoin holdings than reported.
- There are calls for the U.S. to include Bitcoin in its sovereign wealth fund following Abu Dhabi’s model.
Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Investments, has reportedly invested $461M in BlackRock Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, in Q4 2024, making it the 7th largest holder. This has sparked speculation that Abu Dhabi might hold up to $40 billion in Bitcoin.
Unrevealed Bitcoin Holdings
The UAE has not officially disclosed its Bitcoin holdings. However, Binance founder CZ believes that the reported $461M Bitcoin holding could be just the beginning for Abu Dhabi. He stated that this report only covers one of the Sovereign Wealth Funds (Mubadala) in Abu Dhabi, hinting at the existence of other funds.
U.S. to Follow Suit?
David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Magazine, suggests that Abu Dhabi’s holdings are larger than stated and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members are also investing in Bitcoin. This has led to increased calls for the U.S. to include a National Bitcoin Reserve in its recently announced sovereign wealth fund.
The Bitcoin Policy Institute, a cryptocurrency advocacy group, has also suggested that the U.S. could use the approximately 200,000 Bitcoin already in federal custody from law enforcement seizures as seed capital for the sovereign wealth fund. However, this move is still massively underpriced by the market, according to Polymarket’s latest odds.
Despite these bullish updates and apparent ‘nation-state’ moves on Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency’s value remained muted at press time. It has been struggling below $100k for ten days now, with the crypto valued at $97k or 12% from its all-time high at press time.
