Bitcoin-stacking firms BlackRock and MARA Holdings bought a combined 9,173 Bitcoin while an unknown whale scooped up 600 Bitcoin as the cryptocurrency’s price fell to $92,957 on Dec. 5.
BlackRock bought a whopping 7,750 Bitcoin (BTC) as buyers scooped up shares of its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, taking the firm’s total Bitcoin holdings to $48.9 billion at current prices, Arkham data shows.
“Fastest growing ETF EVER,” said Thomas Fahrer, founder of crypto markets firm Apollo, which tracks the spot Bitcoin ETF market.
Source: Thomas Fahrer
Meanwhile, Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings bought 1,423 Bitcoin — worth $139.5 million — across four transactions spanning between Dec. 5 and 6, blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain noted on X.
The Bitcoin purchases followed the closing of MARA’s second $850 million convertible note offering, which it said it would use to accumulate more Bitcoin.
MARA now holds 22,108 Bitcoin worth $2.17 billion, Arkham Intelligence data shows. It marks a massive 162% increase from this exact time last month.
In the third quarter, MARA shifted to a new treasury policy to “retain all” Bitcoin it mines and adopt a range of capital market instruments to bolster its Bitcoin reserves — similar to MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin playbook.
Meanwhile, an anonymous crypto whale seems to have also taken advantage of Bitcoin’s price slump on Dec. 5, snaring 600 Bitcoin worth $58.85 million, Lookonchain noted in a separate X post.
No Bitcoin was held in that whale’s wallet address — “bc1pg…u0pk3” — until its first transaction on Nov. 24, BitInfoCharts data shows.
Related: Bitcoin price will hit $1M, but at what cost? — Michaël van de Poppe
Just a day earlier, Healthcare tech firm Semler Scientific bought another 303 Bitcoin at an average price of $96,779 on Dec. 4 — only several hours before Bitcoin surpassed the $100,000 milestone.
The firm’s latest purchase increased its Bitcoin holdings to 1,873 Bitcoin, worth $182.8 million.
Bitcoin-stacking firms like Semler Scientific hold a combined 527,026 Bitcoin — representing 2.66% of Bitcoin’s current supply, according to the 67 public firms tracked by Bitcoin Treasuries.
Top 10 largest public-listed Bitcoin holders. Source: Bitcoin Treasuries
Governments hold 2,856 Bitcoin, while asset management firms and private firms hold 1,253 Bitcoin and 410,418 Bitcoin, respectively.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $97,580, down 4.9% over the last 24 hours.
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