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Sayantan Saha is a researcher in advanced computing and data protection. He explores how zero-trust databases are reshaping the landscape of information security.

Throughout the history of investing, gold has long been regarded as the undisputed "king of safe havens." However, everything changed starting 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 beginning of an unprecedented capital migration. Funds began seeking a vehicle that was more explosive and better suited to the digital age than gold. Looking back from today in 2025, the winner of this migration is no surprise: BlackRock's IBIT. It took it less than two years to cover the ground that gold ETFs (GLD) took more than a decade to accomplish. According to the latest Q3 financial report, from academic institutions like Harvard University to Middle Eastern royalty, the world's top capital is completing its portfolio allocation from "old gold" to "new gold" at an unprecedented pace. From its inception to becoming a multi-billion dollar giant. First, we need to understand the destination of this migration—IBIT—which is exactly. IBIT (iShares Bitcoin Trust) is a Bitcoin spot ETF launched by BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company. Its emergence solves the biggest pain points of traditional funds: compliance and convenience. With IBIT, investors don't need to register with complicated cryptocurrency exchanges or worry about losing their private keys. You can hold Bitcoin assets held in 1:1 custody by BlackRock on Nasdaq, just like buying and selling stocks. It is this "securitization" bridge that has allowed IBIT to achieve a speed that gold can only dream of: • A $100 billion milestone: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently announced that IBIT's assets under management have officially surpassed $100 billion. ◦ Speed comparison: It took GLD more than a decade to reach this scale, while IBIT took less than two years. It is the establishment of this "compliance bridge" that has finally given the massive amount of traditional funds that have long coveted digital assets a ticket to enter the market. The choice between Harvard and royalty If retail investors' buying is an emotional outburst, then top institutional investors' buying is a well-thought-out strategy. The 13F filing disclosed in Q3 2025 reveals a shocking portfolio chart. 1. Harvard University: The gold is still there, but the "new favorites" are 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, up 98% month-over-month. ◦ IBIT holdings: valued at $443 million, a surge of 257% compared to the previous period. An intriguing detail is that Harvard's holdings in IBIT are already four times the value of its Nvidia stock holdings ($109 million). This suggests that in the eyes of academic capital, Bitcoin is no longer a fringe asset, but a more core asset class than popular tech stocks. 2. Middle Eastern royalty: Views BTC as a "store of value" The Abu Dhabi Investment Committee (ADIC) increased its holdings of IBIT to nearly 8 million units in the third quarter, worth approximately $518 million, tripling the amount from the previous quarter. The logic behind this move is far more complex. ADIC explicitly stated that it "views Bitcoin as a store of value similar to gold." For sovereign wealth funds seeking intergenerational wealth transfer, this is not just an investment, but also a hedge against the future monetary system. 3. Asian Whales: Continued Heavy Investment Meanwhile, the Avenir Group has increased its holdings for five consecutive quarters, and now holds nearly $1.2 billion worth of IBIT, making it the largest institutional holder in Asia. The collective action of these top institutions proves that the crypto industry is no longer synonymous with "speculation," but rather the focus of global capital. IBIT is the best illustration of this global consensus during this period. Market Structure Milestone In addition to the explosive growth in size and holdings, the market structure itself has also undergone a key upgrade. For a long time, the Bitcoin derivatives market has been dominated by Deribit, a platform primarily for crypto native users and traders. But last week, BlackRock's open interest in options ($38 billion) officially surpassed Deribit's ($32 billion). This milestone most directly demonstrates that traditional financial institutions and large professional investors are rapidly and massively entering the Bitcoin market through regulated tools. This deep integration means that Bitcoin assets have gained unprecedented liquidity guarantees, significantly improving the market's maturity and transparency. Beyond Gold  In less than two years, IBIT has achieved a scale that gold ETFs have struggled to reach for over a decade, but this is merely the surface. Its surpassing of GLD ultimately lies in IBIT's structural advantages over traditional safe-haven assets: ◦ Return Advantage: While the annualized returns of traditional safe-haven assets like GLD typically remain stable in the single digits, Bloomberg analysts point out that even after price corrections, IBIT's annualized return since its listing in 2024 has remained close to 80%. This demonstrates that IBIT possesses both the allocation potential of a safe-haven asset and the explosive growth potential of a growth asset. ◦ Funding Resilience: Traditional gold ETFs often face outflows when prices fall. However, as data from SoSoValue shows, even during periods of price volatility, IBIT still manages to record a net inflow of $224 million per day. This resilience of "buying on dips" is precisely a sign that global institutions view IBIT as a long-term strategic allocation. On January 10, 2024, the SEC's approval toppled the first domino; in 2025, IBIT, with its $100 billion scale, proved the irreversibility of this wealth migration. Gold remains the steady ballast, but in 2025, Bitcoin is becoming the speedboat powered by nuclear energy. A new era of digital assets, driven by consensus among the world's top capital markets, has officially begun.