Spain’s largest bank, Banco Santander, has revealed a $4.3 million investment in Bitcoin.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the Madrid-based bank bought the exposure via BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust — a total of 129,615 shares.
The filing is the latest example of a traditional institution seeking exposure to the biggest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Over the past year, Santander’s digital bank, Openbank, has allowed customers to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and began a more friendly approach to marketing digital assets to customers.
BlackRock’s Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) allows investors to buy exposure to Bitcoin without having to own and store the digital coin directly.
The shares trade on a stock exchange and can be bought quickly and easily via a brokerage account.
BlackRock’s IBIT is the most successful crypto ETF: The fund has received more inflows than any other crypto ETF, currently holding $46.9 billion in assets under management, according to its website.
Other major institutions have bought exposure to Bitcoin via the ETFs after their 2024 approval. A large number of investors were previously put off by having to deal with things like storage and private keys but once the SEC approved a slew of ETFs in 2024, new capital entered the space.
The crypto ETF market is already a crowded one, with popular products by top asset managers BlackRock, Fidelity, and bank Morgan Stanley already on the market.
U.S. Bitcoin funds currently manage over $83 billion in assets, according to CoinGlass data.