Hightower Advisors disclosed a $68 million investment in spot Bitcoin ETFs in a May 6 deposit.
The 13F filing shows the company owns 709,956 shares of Grayscale's GBTC worth $44.8 million, 200,084 shares of FBTC worth $12.4 million, 188,397 shares of BlackRock's IBIT worth $7.6 million and 23,964 shares of Ark Invest's ARKB worth $1.7 million.
He also disclosed two smaller investments: 25,449 shares of Bitwise's BITB worth $988,000 and 19,129 shares of Franklin Templeton's EZBC worth $788,000.
Hightower's investment in the six spot Bitcoin ETFs represents a small fraction of the $61.7 billion total disclosed in its latest filing.
SouthState buys GBTC and IBIT
Another financial institution, SouthState Bank, investments disclosed in two spot Bitcoin ETFs worth $577,198 combined via 13F filing.
The company reported 6,606 shares of Grayscale's GBTC worth $417,301, plus 3,951 shares of BlackRock's IBIT worth $159,897.
SouthState Bank's spot Bitcoin ETF investments represent a small portion of the $1.3 billion total reported on its filing.
Institutional investments continue
Each deposit represents an ongoing institutional entry into the Bitcoin ETF spot market.
Hightower is one of the largest registered investment advisors and wealth management firms in the United States, with $130 billion in assets under management (AUM).
SouthState Bank is a Florida-based bank. Following a merger with CenterState Bank, the two entities have a total of $34 billion in assets under management.
The latest reports follow several other similar filings. French banking giant BNP Paribas announced an investment in IBIT on May 2. Burkett Financial Services announced investments in April, while Legacy Wealth Asset Management and others also announced investments the same month.
BlackRock's head of digital assets, Robert Mitchnick, predicted that financial institutions will increasingly invest and trade in spot Bitcoin ETFs in the coming months. The various recent disclosures from financial institutions support his assertions.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs currently have $53 billion in assets under management.