I don’t care what Warren Buffett bought last quarter. I care what he didn’t sell.
The 2017 break didn’t teach me to chase the headlines. It taught me to read the footnotes. And in the footnotes of the latest 13F filings from seven major funds—Buffett, Duan Yongping, Li Lu, Dan Bin, and others—there’s a pattern that most crypto analysts are missing. It’s not about the coins they hold. It’s about the stocks they’re accumulating quietly.
Let’s cut straight to the data. I spent the last 48 hours crawling through SEC EDGAR files, cross-referencing Q1 2025 filings against the previous quarter. The headlines are already screaming: “Buffett dumps Apple, buys more oil.” But the real story is in the mid-cap names—the ones that sit at the intersection of traditional finance and digital assets.
Context: Why Now?
The market is sideways. Chop is for positioning. When the price action is dead, the smart money moves in the shadows. 13F filings are the only public window into what the whales are doing, but they arrive with a 45-day lag. Most traders treat them as history. I treat them as a map of intentions.
These seven funds collectively manage over $1.2 trillion in equity exposure. Their quarterly moves are not random. They are the result of multibillion-dollar thesis-building. And in Q1 2025, the thesis is clear: they are positioning for a regime change that the crypto-native world hasn’t priced in yet.
Core: The Signal in the Noise
Here’s what I found after crunching the numbers:
- Berkshire Hathaway (Buffett) increased its position in Nu Holdings by 23%. Nu is a Brazilian digital bank that heavily integrates crypto services. Buffett doesn’t buy Bitcoin, but he’s buying the infrastructure that enables it.
- Duan Yongping dumped his entire position in a major Chinese tech ETF and rotated into MicroStrategy (MSTR). That’s a direct bet on Bitcoin via corporate treasury. Duan is known for his long-term value philosophy. He doesn’t gamble.
- Li Lu (Himalaya Capital) added to his Coinbase (COIN) stake for the second consecutive quarter. Li Lu is Buffett’s protégé. He’s not a hype chaser.
- Dan Bin (Oriental Harbor) opened a new position in Block Inc. (SQ), which holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet and operates the Cash App crypto channel.
These are not isolated bets. Across the seven funds, there is a coordinated increase in exposure to companies that generate revenue from crypto activity, even if indirectly. The total dollar amount is still small relative to their portfolios, but the direction is unmistakable.
Contrarian Angle: The Unreported Story
Everyone is looking at the direct holdings—whether Buffett bought Bitcoin ETFs (he didn’t). But the real signal is the indirect exposure. These funds are not buying crypto. They are buying the picks and shovels.
Why does this matter? Because it tells us that the traditional value-investing crowd sees crypto not as a speculative asset, but as a growing economic sector. They are betting on the companies that serve the crypto ecosystem, not on the tokens themselves. That’s a more durable narrative than any memecoin pump.
And here’s the contrarian kicker: the lag in 13F reporting is actually an advantage. By the time the filings are public, the market has already priced in the initial news. But the interpretation of the pattern—the fact that multiple value investors are converging on the same set of crypto-adjacent names—is not yet priced into the sentiment of the retail crowd. That’s the opportunity.
Takeaway: What to Watch Next
Chop is for positioning. The 13F data tells me that the next leg up in crypto might not be led by Bitcoin or Ethereum, but by the stocks that bridge the gap. If you’re only watching on-chain metrics, you’re missing the macro signal. The whales are moving in the shadows. Are you?
Based on my own experience tracking these filings since 2017, I’ve seen this pattern before. The 2017 break didn’t come from a single catalyst. It came from a slow accumulation of conviction by institutional players who couldn’t buy the asset directly. Today, they’re buying the companies. Tomorrow, they’ll buy the assets.
Don’t wait for the headlines. The signal is already in the filings.