In the long river of investment, gold has always been regarded as the unshakable "king of safe havens." However, everything began to change in 2024. On January 10, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs, including those from BlackRock and Fidelity, marking the start of an unprecedented capital migration. Funds began to seek a vehicle that was more explosive than gold and better suited to the digital age.
Now, looking back from 2025, the winner of this migration is undoubtedly: BlackRock's IBIT.
In less than two years, it has traversed the path that took gold ETFs (GLD) over a decade. According to the latest Q3 financial report data, from the academic halls of Harvard University to Middle Eastern royal families, the world's top capital is rapidly completing the allocation from "old gold" to "new gold."
From "Birth" to "Trillion-Dollar Giant"
First, we need to understand the destination of this migration—what exactly is IBIT?
IBIT (iShares Bitcoin Trust) is the Bitcoin spot ETF launched by BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company. Its emergence addresses the biggest pain points of traditional funds: compliance and convenience.
Through IBIT, investors do not need to register with complex crypto exchanges, nor do they have to worry about losing private keys. You can hold Bitcoin assets managed 1:1 by BlackRock on the Nasdaq, just like buying and selling stocks.
It is this "securitization" bridge that has allowed IBIT to achieve a speed that gold can only envy:
◦ Trillion-dollar milestone: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently announced that IBIT's assets under management have officially surpassed $100 billion.
◦ Speed comparison: It took GLD over a decade to reach this scale, while IBIT achieved it in less than two years.
The establishment of this "compliance bridge" has finally provided a ticket for the massive traditional funds that have long been eyeing digital assets to enter the market.
Harvard and Royal Choices
If retail investors' purchases are an expression of emotion, then top institutions' purchases are a well-considered strategy. The Q3 2025 13F filings reveal a shocking picture of holdings.
1. Harvard University: Gold is still there, but the "new favorite" is growing faster
Harvard University's endowment fund has always been known for its stability. Data shows that as of September 30, Harvard held both GLD and IBIT.
◦ GLD holdings: valued at $235 million, a quarter-over-quarter increase of 98%.
◦ IBIT holdings: valued at $443 million, a quarter-over-quarter surge of 257%.
A telling detail is that Harvard's holding value in IBIT is already four times that of its holdings in Nvidia stock ($109 million). This indicates that in the eyes of academic capital, Bitcoin is no longer a fringe asset but a more core allocation than popular tech stocks.
2. Middle Eastern Royalty: Viewing BTC as a "store of value"
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIC) increased its IBIT shares to nearly 8 million in Q3, valued at approximately $518 million, tripling from the previous quarter.
The logic behind this move is even grander. ADIC explicitly stated, "We view Bitcoin as a store of value similar to gold." For sovereign funds seeking wealth preservation across generations, this is not just an investment but a hedge against the future monetary system.
3. Asian Whales: Continued Heavy Investment
Meanwhile, the Li family office (Avenir Group) has increased its holdings for five consecutive quarters, currently holding IBIT valued at nearly $1.2 billion, firmly establishing itself as the largest institutional holder in Asia.
The collective actions of these top institutions prove that the crypto industry is no longer synonymous with "speculation," but rather the focus of global capital. IBIT is the best footnote to this period of global consensus.
Milestone in Market Structure
In addition to the explosive growth in scale and holdings, the market structure itself has also undergone a critical upgrade.
For a long time, the Bitcoin derivatives market has been dominated by Deribit (a platform primarily for crypto-native users and traders).
However, last week, the open interest in options for BlackRock's IBIT ($38 billion) officially surpassed that of Deribit ($32 billion).
This milestone directly indicates that traditional financial institutions and large professional investors are entering the Bitcoin market at an unprecedented speed through regulated tools. This deep integration means that Bitcoin assets have gained unprecedented liquidity assurance, significantly enhancing market maturity and transparency.
Surpassing Gold
IBIT has achieved a scale in less than two years that gold ETFs took over a decade to reach, but this is just the surface. Its surpassing of GLD ultimately reflects IBIT's structural advantages over traditional safe-haven assets:
◦ Return advantage: While the annualized returns of traditional safe-haven assets like GLD typically stabilize in single digits, Bloomberg analysts point out that even after price corrections, IBIT has maintained an annualized return of nearly 80% since its launch in 2024. This proves that IBIT possesses both the allocation characteristics of a safe-haven asset and the explosive potential of a growth asset.
◦ Fund resilience: Traditional gold ETFs often face capital outflows when prices drop. However, as SoSoValue data shows, even during price volatility, IBIT still recorded a net inflow of $224 million in a single day. This "buying more as prices fall" resilience is precisely a hallmark of why global institutions view IBIT as a long-term strategic allocation.
On January 10, 2024, the SEC's approval knocked down the first domino; in 2025, IBIT, with a scale of $100 billion, proved the irreversibility of this wealth migration. Gold remains that stable ballast, but as of 2025, Bitcoin is becoming the fast boat powered by nuclear energy.
A new era of digital assets driven by global top capital consensus has officially begun.
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