Bitwise to Integrate Osprey Bitcoin Trust Assets Into BITB

• Bitwise Asset Management announced its merger with Osprey Bitcoin Trust.
• BITB has pulled in substantial inflows accounting for $2.4B in assets.

Bitwise Asset Management has announced its intention to acquire the Osprey Bitcoin Trust (OBTC) within the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) market. This acquisition, revealed in a press release on Tuesday, will see Bitwise integrate Osprey’s $120 million in assets into its own Bitwise BTC ETF (BITB).

As part of the acquisition, OBTC holders will receive BITB shares through a liquidating distribution. Bitwise assured that current BITB holders will not see any changes to their shares or the fund’s operations due to the acquisition.

Osprey launched its BTC Trust in February 2021, after the Grayscale BTC Trust before it transitioned to an ETF. OBTC shares have historically traded at premiums or discounts leading to discrepancies from the actual BTC market price. 

Recent data shows that OBTC shares have dropped by 4.27% over the past month, compared to Bitcoin’s 11.34% decline. The acquisition offers OBTC holders, tighter tracking of BTC’s price and a reduced management fee of 0.2%, compared to OBTC’s 0.49%. 

BITB has attracted substantial inflows, managing $2.4 billion in assets, making it the fifth-largest BTC Spot ETF in the U.S. The acquisition also follows Bitwise’s recent purchase of ETC Group, expanding in the European market, bringing its total assets under management (AUM) to $4.5B.

U.S. BTC ETFs See Net Outflows as Bitwise Acquires OBTC

Recently, U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced net outflows on Tuesday, breaking an eight-day streak of positive inflows. The funds reported $127M in net outflows, with Bitwise’s BITB seeing $6.76M in outflows. In contrast, Spot ether ETFs continued their streak of net outflows, totaling $3.45M on Tuesday.

Osprey Funds, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, began trading OBTC in February 2021 and has been competing with Grayscale. The acquisition represents a strategic move for both firms, offering OBTC holders the opportunity to benefit from Bitwise’s expertise in the BTC ETF space.

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