Bitcoin ETF Position of Abu Dhabi Funds Loses $118 Million

Two Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds left their Bitcoin (BTC) exposure through BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust unchanged during the second quarter, even as the position’s value declined by $118 million. SEC Form 13F filings reviewed by COINOTAG show Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council jointly held 22,940,629 IBIT shares on June 30, worth $764 million, compared with $881 million three months earlier. The filings do not indicate any share sales. The drop reflects a sharp quarter for Bitcoin, which began April around $68,079 and reached $82,139 by May 10 before losing momentum. The trust’s price touched $46.47 the following day, briefly lifting the Abu Dhabi position to about $1.07 billion. June reversed that advance: BTC fell 17.9% during the month and closed June at $58,559, leaving the combined stake $302 million below its May peak. Mubadala reported its holdings on Aug. 14, a day after the Investment Council’s disclosure. Across both reports, the share counts matched the prior quarter exactly, showing that the drawdown was valuation-driven rather than the result of distribution or trimming. The asset remained roughly half below its $126,080 all-time high set on Oct. 6, 2025. For Bitcoin, that distinction matters: the funds absorbed a large paper loss without reducing the position.

The two Abu Dhabi vehicles experience that same Bitcoin exposure very differently. For Mubadala, IBIT represented only 1.4% of a $34.77 billion U.S.-listed portfolio at quarter-end, where chipmaker GlobalFoundries accounted for 94.7% and the ETF remained the second-largest position. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council’s book is far more concentrated: its $274 million IBIT holding made up 38% of a $714 million disclosed portfolio and stood as its largest reported position. Mubadala had increased its IBIT allocation in the first quarter, a period when Harvard reduced its own stake by 43%, and neither Abu Dhabi fund disclosed a second crypto asset. The filings arrive while other institutions have stepped back. Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest banking group, reduced its IBIT position by 93.7% and shifted toward staked Ethereum-linked products, an altcoin category that has attracted recent ETF attention. Flow data showed U.S. spot Bitcoin funds shed 3,170 BTC in late July, while Ethereum products recorded a third consecutive week of inflows. Price action had steadied after June: Bitcoin reclaimed $65,000 during July and traded near $62,957 on Saturday, still far below its record. The average buyer of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs was still 22% underwater at the end of July, underscoring how the June bear-market phase weighed on institutional entry points.

The separate disclosures also reveal how the same trade sits inside each fund’s broader U.S.-listed portfolio. Mubadala reported 14,721,917 IBIT shares as of June 30, valued at about $490.1 million for quarter-end purposes. That made the Bitcoin trust the second-largest position in Mubadala’s 13F portfolio by value, behind roughly $32.9 billion of GlobalFoundries shares. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council, filing a day earlier, reported 8,218,712 IBIT shares valued at about $273.6 million. For ADIC, the position was not a secondary allocation; it was the largest disclosed holding in a much tighter portfolio. Together, the two reports translate into approximately 22.94 million IBIT shares and a combined reported value near $763.7 million at the end of June. The slight difference between that figure and the $764 million combined estimate reflects rounding across the two filings. Because 13F reports only U.S.-listed securities, the disclosures capture the funds’ ETF wrapper rather than any direct Bitcoin (BTC) custody arrangement. The unchanged share counts suggest the quarter’s loss was carried as a valuation change, not as a reduction in the sovereign funds’ reported Bitcoin-linked exposure. No second crypto product appeared in either filing, leaving IBIT as the only visible Bitcoin-linked vehicle in these quarter-end snapshots.

Separately, blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence has linked approximately 6,782 Bitcoin, valued near $453.6 million at the time of assessment, to wallets associated with mining operations tied to the UAE's Royal Group. The attribution highlights a structural contrast with other government holders: the UAE's accumulation appears driven by domestic mining rather than law enforcement confiscations, the primary source of Bitcoin reserves for nations such as the United States. BlackRock's IBIT, the vehicle through which both Abu Dhabi funds hold their exposure, currently manages $47.3 billion in assets, making it the largest crypto ETF by inflows.

The same batch of Q2 13F filings revealed that several major financial institutions expanded or initiated Bitcoin ETF positions even as the Abu Dhabi funds held steady. JPMorgan more than doubled its IBIT stake to approximately $356 million from $162 million three months earlier, while UBS grew its holdings roughly 355% to about 2.5 million shares valued near $90 million. Banco Santander disclosed its first-ever spot Bitcoin ETF position, reporting 129,615 IBIT shares worth $4.31 million. Tudor Investment Corp, the $106 billion macro fund led by Paul Tudor Jones, increased its IBIT allocation by 18.9% to 688,529 shares. Edelman Financial Engines, which manages $326 billion in client assets, reported $34 million split between IBIT and Grayscale's GBTC—exceeding its Amazon holding. In total, 563 registered investment advisers reported a combined $3.5 billion in Bitcoin ETF holdings at mid-year.

(as of 22:15 UTC) COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine places Bitcoin (BTC) near $63,150, with the $63,910 resistance rated 58/100, driven by EMA 50, ATR Upper, HVN, and BB Middle confluence. The nearest strong support at $63,019 scores 82/100, anchored by Ichimoku Senkou A, Ichimoku Cloud Bottom, Fibo 0.214, and Pivot Point signals. RSI at 43.73 and a bearish MACD signal keep the broader downtrend intact. Derivatives positioning is cautiously long: funding is modest at 0.0028%, open interest is $13.93 billion, and the long/short account ratio is 2.11, or 67.9% long. That crowded long bias alongside Fear and Greed at 34 suggests upside is possible if BTC clears $63,910 toward $64,647. A daily close below $63,019 would weaken the bullish case and open the $61,359 region.