Rothschild Investment Corp has increased its Bitcoin exposure by 300% since April

Billionaire investment firm Rothschild Investment Corp has quadrupled its exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) since April, new filings show.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 17, Rothschild confirmed that it currently owns 141,405 shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

Rothschild GBTC shares nearly 150,000

Rothchild Investment Corp is a quiet but equally important player among the institutions. Rothchild Investment Corp has also invested in Grayscale’s Ether (ETH) equivalent, the Grayscale Ethereum Trust.

Its exposure to Bitcoin has increased significantly this year, as the records show – as of April, its GBTC holdings were 38,346.

In terms of BTC, with every GBTC share of 0.000939767 BTC, Rothschild has the corresponding Bitcoin spread of 132.8 BTC ($ 3.94 million).

The data implied the drop in prices didn’t bother operators as Bitcoin sustained its decline for three months after hitting an all-time high of $ 64,500 in mid-May.

As Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein noted this week, institutional players may pay less attention to short-term price movements and instead focus on a strategy that prioritizes much less time when talking about cryptocurrencies.

“Investors in this asset class don’t really focus on … the short-term price action,” he told CNBC.

“These are really investors who are looking at their allocation for the medium to long term, so nobody should be concerned about any volatility or decrease in volatility.”

On Monday, ARK Invest bought its own reported 310,000 GBTC shares, bringing its total holdings to 8.81 million, or 0.5% of its portfolio. At its peak, GBTC accounted for 0.9% of the ARK portfolio in late March.

Good timing for grayscale FUD?

As Cointelegraph reported, Grayscale was the focus of discussion this week when GBTC shares valued at over 16,000 BTC were unlocked on Sunday.

Related: Institutional Demand For Bitcoin Vaporizes As BTC Sinks Below $ 31,000

The concerns, while deemed unfounded, have long been founded that the event will put pressure on the price of Bitcoin, with the sharp decline on Monday and Tuesday igniting the flames.

However, since GBTC investors can’t buy back shares for BTC and then sell them for fiat currency, the Bitcoin market is practically out of the equation when it comes to unlocking.

Grayscale itself only sells a small portion of the trust’s BTC holdings for fund management purposes.