Abu Dhabi Funds Boosted BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Exposure to $1 Billion by End of 2025: Filings

In brief

• Abu Dhabi-based funds held more than $1 billion in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) at the end of 2025.
• The firm’s added to their positions during Q4, but have seen their exposure diminish in dollar terms amid Bitcoin’s slide.
• Bitcoin ETFs have shed more than $21 billion in assets under management since the year began.

Abu Dhabi-based investment funds grew their Bitcoin exposure to more than $1 billion in total at the conclusion of last year, new filings with the SEC show.  Mubadala Investments and Al Warda Investments, which is connected to the Abu Dhabi Investment Council—itself a Mubadala company—collectively owned nearly 21 million shares of IBIT, the BlackRock spot Bitcoin ETF that provides direct exposure to crypto’s top asset.  Based on values from the time of report, Mubadala owned around $630 million in IBIT and Al Warda maintained a $408 million stake. 

In the case of Mubadala, the newest reported number—about 12.7 million shares of IBIT—showcases a jump of nearly 4 million shares of IBIT from the firm’s third-quarter 13-F filing, a quarterly report that details the holdings of investment managers with the SEC. Its previous filing indicated it held just more than 8.7 million IBIT shares.  Meanwhile, Al Warda jumped from 7.96 million shares of IBIT to over 8.2 million shares, a gain of around 255,000 shares during the fourth quarter.  While their collective exposure was more than $1 billion at the close of the year, shares of IBIT have fallen 22.5% year-to-date amid Bitcoin’s slide, granting the two parties around $803 million in combined IBIT exposure based on its recent price of $38.44.  Mubadala, a sovereign fund which counts Abu Dhabi’s government as a shareholder, first added IBIT exposure to its balance sheet during the fourth quarter of 2024, notching at least $436 million in Bitcoin exposure at that time.

Bitcoin ETFs have had a shaky start to the year, shedding more than $21 billion in assets under management in total, from more than $116.7 billion to around $95.5 billion, according to data from CoinGlass. The ETFs did post a small positive inflow on Friday, snapping two consecutive days of notable outflows last week as BTC slumped. Harvard University is among those who have reduced their Bitcoin ETF exposure, cutting its stake in IBIT by 1.46 million shares, or around $56 million worth. Harvard didn’t shy from adding other crypto exposure, though, instead opting to create a $86 million position in BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF, ETHA. Bitcoin is down around 1% in the last 24 hours, recently changing hands at $67,718—about 46% off its October all-time high of $126,080.