The entire crypto community spent months wondering why Bitcoin crashed in October last year. As such, everyone eagerly waited for major institutional investment managers to file their quarterly 13F reports with the SEC so they could reveal which funds were buying or selling Bitcoin ETFs around the time of the crash.
But the answers they got might not be the answers they wanted.
From the last filings due on Valentine’s Day and formally reported yesterday due to Monday’s Presidents’ Day holiday, the spotlight immediately fell on Laurore LTD, a relatively unknown Hong Kong-based entity that showed up in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) holder list with 8.79 million shares (around $436 million).
It was Bitwise advisor Jeff Park, who flagged the filing yesterday, February 17, describing Laurore as “the biggest new entrant into IBIT” from “a brand new entity with no website. No press. No footprint.”
The news triggered immediate speculation: was this mystery fund the hammer that smashed Bitcoin from $127,000 to $102,000 in 40 minutes back in October last year?
Q4 holdings show Laurore built its position after the crash
DeFi Development Corporation CIO, Parker White, noted that Laurore’s IBIT stake was built during the fourth quarter of 2025, which began on October 1 and ended December 31.
However, Parker did observe that major options market makers “MASSIVELY increased their long vol exposure to IBIT via both CALL and PUT buying,” according to yesterday’s Q4 13F filings.
In his post, Parker mentioned what he thought were “comical” position size increases by Jane Street, SIG, IMC, Citadel, and Marex, some of the largest options market makers in the world.
“690% increase in calls from JPM (likely tied to their structured product offerings), 102% increase from Barclays, etc.” Parker mentioned.
The DeFi Development Corporation claimed that someone is massively short on the other side of these “massive CALL and PUT buying by the dealers.” 13F filings currently do not require funds to report short positions in options, only long positions.
Parker ended the post not completely exonerating Laurore: “So then, with this much positioning, if the short positioning was concentrated with just a few funds (or maybe a single HK-based fund as I’ve predicted), then a blow up is completely inevitable.”
However, in a later post on the same day, Parker admitted: “I kinda don’t think they are the HK fund that blew up, but nonetheless, interesting,” referring to Laurore.
Chinese capital could be rerouting funds to US ETFs
Park’s analysis focused more on finding out information about Laurore than the cause of the crash, though. He observed that the filer’s name was Zhang Hui, which he described as the “Chinese equivalent of John Smith”, a name so common it also serves as camouflage, thus drawing more raised eyebrows.
From the SEC filings, Laurore listed its address as Suites 2907-8, 29F, Two Exchange Square, 8 Connaught Place, Central, Hong Kong. This is one of the city’s most prestigious financial districts.
Park also noted that the Ltd suffix potentially indicates a Cayman Islands or British Virgin Islands shell structure commonly used by wealthy users or institutions with restricted capital to access US securities markets.
Based on the similarities in the signatory name and address, Parker White believes that Laurore might be a subsidiary of Hao Advisors Management, although with some skepticism. He also claimed that the setup was done professionally, so it could not have been an amateur operation.
What makes Laurore interesting, however, is the capital flow associated with it. Since Chinese citizens cannot legally hold Bitcoin directly, Park suggested that the filing could represent “an early sign of institutional Chinese capital moving into Bitcoin through a regulated US ETF rather than through exchanges or gray-market channels.”
The theory makes sense since IBIT offers institutional-grade Bitcoin exposure with BlackRock’s $10 trillion valuation, full SEC oversight, and huge liquidity. This means a Cayman Islands-based organization holding IBIT shares through a Hong Kong address can still maintain plausible deniability.
13F filings rule out institutional conspiracy
The Valentine’s Day filing deadline failed to produce concrete evidence tying institutional players to the October incident.
Nonetheless, Park’s main point about transparency is still true. Since registered investment advisors managing over $100 million are mandated to disclose all equity holdings per quarter, offshore entities like Laurore that choose US ETF exposure have to voluntarily subject themselves to the public scrutiny that comes with the territory.