The blockchain data tracking firm Arkham Intel found wallets associated with WBIT, a physical Bitcoin 
BTC
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exchange-traded product (ETP) from the asset manager WisdomTree.
WBIT holds 8,900 BTC, worth around $579 million, across 134 wallets, Arkham noted on the social media platform X Friday.
“WisdomTree Physical Bitcoin is a physically backed exchange-traded product (ETP) designed to offer shareholders a simple, secure and cost-efficient way to gain exposure to the price of Bitcoin,” according to WBIT’s website. “The ETP provides for easy investor access, tradability, transparency and institutional custody solutions with a robust physically backed structure.”
A physically-backed bitcoin ETP is comparable to a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in that both products hold Bitcoin as their underlying asset. While both closely follow the price of bitcoin, a spot bitcoin ETF may use derivatives to track the price of bitcoin without needing the investor to hold the coin. A physically-backed bitcoin ETP, such as WBIT, entitles investors to a portion of bitcoin owned by the fund in cold storage.
WisdomTree also issues the spot bitcoin ETF (WBTC) was approved on Jan. 10, 2024. BTCW saw $31.6 million in U.S. dollar volume on Apr. 24 and $10.6 million on Apr. 25, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard.
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About Author
MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.