Blackstone Group Makes First Bet on Bitcoin, Holds $1.08M Worth of IBTC

On May 21st, it appears that Blackstone Group has finally taken its first step into Bitcoin. As the "world's largest alternative asset manager" with assets under management exceeding $1 trillion, Blackstone Group only purchased a little more than $1 million worth of the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (IBIT), which has a fund size of over $600 billion. According to a filing made public on Tuesday, Blackstone held this asset in its investment portfolio as of the end of the fiscal quarter on March 30th. According to a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, as of the end of March, Blackstone held only $1.08 million worth of IBIT. This is the first time that Blackstone has publicly disclosed its holdings related to cryptocurrency. Back in 2019, Blackstone Group's co-founder and CEO, Stephen Schwarzman, expressed little interest in Bitcoin. He said at that time, "I have very little interest in this. I don't have much interest because I don't understand it."