Galaxy Research says hedge funds cut 68,000 BTC of spot ETF exposure

Nine hedge funds trimmed their spot Bitcoin ETF positions through the 2026 slump while wealth platforms and sovereign funds kept buying The investors who dumped Bitcoin ETF shares during the latest downturn were not panicked retail traders. According to Galaxy Research, they were hedge funds. Nine of them cut their spot Bitcoin ETF holdings by roughly 68,000 BTC between late September 2025 and June 2026. Galaxy’s read of the selling is notably unsentimental: the exits tracked how the trade paid relative to Treasury bills, not a sudden loss of faith in Bitcoin. What the 13F filings show Galaxy built its analysis from 13F filings. These are the quarterly disclosures large US money managers must submit to show what they hold. Across all 13F filers, reported Bitcoin ETF exposure fell by about 14% over the same window. The nine hedge funds Galaxy flagged accounted for a sizable chunk of that retreat. The timing lines up with Bitcoin’s slide through late 2025 and into early 2026. The interesting part is who stood on the other side of those trades. Galaxy found that wealth platforms and sovereign funds increased their Bitcoin exposure during the same stretch, a shift that early Q3 13F fil...