Bitcoin erased $118 million from Abu Dhabi’s ETF holdings, but its sovereign funds kept every share
Two Abu Dhabi sovereign buyers kept their BlackRock Bitcoin ETF holdings unchanged by means of the second quarter, retaining $764 million of publicity even because the cryptocurrency remained mired in one among its steepest annual declines.
Mubadala Investment Company and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council held a mixed 22.94 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) as of June 30, regulatory filings present.
Neither decreased its share rely throughout the quarter.
The choice meant the funds absorbed the decline in IBIT. Their mixed positions have been valued at about $881.4 million on the finish of March, implying roughly $118 million of worth was erased throughout the second quarter although the variety of shares remained unchanged. Mubadala’s stake alone fell in reported worth to $490.1 million from $565.6 million.
Mubadala held 14,721,917 IBIT shares as of June 30, the identical quantity it owned three months earlier. The place remained its second-largest reported holding in its $34.8 billion 13F portfolio, behind GlobalFoundries.
The sovereign investor had elevated its place by nearly 16% throughout the first quarter, including greater than 2 million shares as Bitcoin weakened. It had beforehand boosted the stake by about 46% within the ultimate quarter of 2025.
Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) additionally stood pat, retaining 8,218,712 IBIT shares price about $273.6 million as of June 30. IBIT was its largest reported US-listed place, accounting for over 33% of its roughly $715 million 13F portfolio.
ADIC started reporting the place immediately earlier this 12 months after its subsidiary Al Warda Investments had beforehand disclosed the stake. The reporting change didn’t alter the helpful possession of the shares.
Bitcoin slides
The unchanged positions stand out in opposition to Bitcoin’s efficiency this 12 months.
Bitcoin traded near $62,900 on Friday, down about 29% from roughly $88,700 in the beginning of 2026. The cryptocurrency has additionally fallen by roughly half from the file above $126,000 reached final October.
BlackRock information present IBIT was down 27.6% this 12 months by means of Aug. 13, with web belongings falling to about $47.35 billion. Its shares closed at $35.88 Thursday.
The broader ETF market displays this retreat, with Bitcoin ETFs shedding round $40 billion in belongings underneath administration, from greater than $116.7 billion to round $95.5 billion, in keeping with data from SoSoValue.
That means the Abu Dhabi buyers have thus far responded otherwise from establishments which have used the downturn to chop publicity.
Harvard University, for instance, reduced its IBIT place by 43% throughout the first quarter after already trimming it late final 12 months. Mubadala elevated its holdings throughout that very same interval, whereas ADIC kept its stake unchanged.
Michael Tanguma, chief government of Onramp Bitcoin, mentioned Abu Dhabi might also hold Bitcoin directly in chilly storage, arguing that relying completely on an ETF construction could be uncommon for a sovereign investor looking for long-term publicity.
Form 13F disclosures cowl specified US-listed securities and wouldn’t reveal Bitcoin held immediately in sovereign-controlled wallets, that means the filings neither affirm nor rule out Tanguma’s assertion.
Abu Dhabi deepens its crypto push
These funds’ choice to take care of their Bitcoin positions comes as Abu Dhabi builds a broader institutional presence across digital assets, spanning regulation, enterprise funding, tokenization and crypto infrastructure.
Abu Dhabi Global Market, the emirate’s worldwide monetary heart, has operated a devoted virtual-asset regulatory framework since 2018 and mentioned late final 12 months that greater than 20 regulated companies have been licensed to conduct activities involving virtual assets or fiat-referenced tokens.
Binance obtained a worldwide license underneath the framework in December, whereas Coinbase secured regulatory approval this week to establish a world tokenization hub in Abu Dhabi.
State-linked capital has moved alongside that regulatory growth. Abu Dhabi-backed MGX agreed final 12 months to invest $2 billion in Binance, one of many largest institutional investments ever made in a crypto firm.
Separately, Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s government-backed know-how ecosystem, established a devoted digital-assets program with greater than $2 billion of capital dedicated to Web3 and blockchain startups.
Mubadala itself has additionally expanded past merely proudly owning Bitcoin by means of an ETF. Its asset-management arm, Mubadala Capital, moved one among its private-market funds onchain in July, making the technique obtainable in tokenized type throughout Base, Solana and Sui.
Those initiatives present an Abu Dhabi funding technique that has more and more handled digital belongings as a part of its monetary infrastructure reasonably than solely as a speculative commerce.
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