Abu Dhabi fills up with Bitcoin: $437 million in BTC via ETF

By Davide Grammatica

The sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi (UAE) is said to have purchased BTC for $437 million in Q4 2024 through BlackRock's Bitcoin spot ETF

Big news for Bitcoin

The Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Investment Company, obtained exposure to Bitcoin in the last quarter of 2024, for a value of over $437 million.

This was revealed by recent documentation filed with the US financial authorities, which uncovered a transaction involving the entire BlackRock Bitcoin spot ETF.

The whole operation took place at the same time as BlackRock obtained a commercial license in the UAE last year, allowing the issuer to operate in the territory.

The company in question makes investments on behalf of the government of Abu Dhabi, and for this reason the whole operation is extremely important.

In fact, it is the most significant investment in cryptocurrencies on behalf of the city, which has long been a leading hub for the entire industry. In 2023, for example, the government had made several investments in the mining sector, and projects in collaboration with Marathon Digital and Zero Two for a complex dedicated to this practice are still on the table.

BTC's reaction

The news had a significant impact on the market, with BTC currently threatening to return to threaten $100k, with a +2.5 in a few hours.

The dominance of BlackRock and its BTC spot ETF is thus becoming increasingly evident in relation to other issuers. Today the product manages $56 billion in assets, and has even attracted a sovereign wealth fund as a client.

Moreover, it is not impossible that the fund could now set an example for other institutional investors in the Middle East, where governments themselves are the first to be increasingly interested in digital assets.