Who sold bitcoin ETFs in 2026? Hedge funds out, Abu Dhabi funds in (Galaxy)

A small group of hedge funds and banks did almost all of the institutional selling of US spot bitcoin ETFs during the 2026 slump, while sovereign funds and wealth platforms bought, according to a Galaxy Research report published on Monday. The study of quarterly 13F filings was summarised by Decrypt. The data runs only to the end of June.

The headline numbers

Institutions that file 13F reports with the SEC held spot ETF shares worth 355,000 BTC at the end of September 2025, just before bitcoin's record high. By June 2026 that was 307,000 BTC, a 14% drop, while the price fell about 49% over the same stretch. Advisers, family offices and individuals who don't file 13Fs trimmed their holdings by only 6.6%.

Nine sellers explain the whole decline

Millennium Management, Brevan Howard, Goldman Sachs, Capula, Farallon, D.E. Shaw, Schonfeld, Symmetry Investments and Tudor Investment together cut 68,000 BTC of exposure, roughly $5.4 billion at current prices. Each reduced its position by between 29% and 100%. That is more than the total decline, so the remaining ~2,200 filers were net buyers of about 20,000 BTC.

Who bought

Galaxy names Morgan Stanley's wealth management arm, Abu Dhabi's Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council among the buyers. Since the June low, the ETFs have added 87,000 BTC, which Galaxy reads as directional buying rather than arbitrage. For how fund exposure differs from owning coins, see bitcoin ETFs vs buying bitcoin.

Why the fast money left

Many sellers ran a cash-and-carry trade: buy ETF shares, short CME bitcoin futures and pocket the gap, called the basis. In the 30 days before the all-time high, the front-month basis averaged 7.9% annualised, 3.9 points above three-month Treasury bills. In the 30 days to Oct. 21 it averaged 4.8%, just 0.6 points above bills. After costs, Galaxy estimates the trade now earns about 1.5 points over cash. "That arithmetic, not the price, is why the multi-strategy desks left," Galaxy's Alex Thorn wrote.

CFTC data agrees: asset managers' net long in CME bitcoin futures fell 57%, from 43,300 to 18,400 BTC, and leveraged funds' net short shrank by the same share.

What it means now

Fewer carry traders means ETF flows say more about real demand, but they remain choppy. This week's numbers are in our report on $176 million of bitcoin ETF inflows, and Galaxy's earlier view is in its accumulation call. Galaxy discloses that it holds bitcoin.