To be a true hedge fund you need to be long as well as short, so owning the underlying asset (bitcoin) allows them to then short on the CME. Having a lot of coins also means they can manipulate the price a bit. For example say they have gone short on the CME and want to force the bitcoin price down towards settlement time - easy, just sell the actual bitcoins you have bought.
Prepare for a very wild ride when the futures are launched.
So do you think this increase is due to "big money" coming in? That would explain the very sudden surge in the price but I'm not entirely sure how sustainable this would be.
The demand of bitcoin is tremendously increasing in the international market and now the usage of bitcoin in online transactions, online shopping etc. is also becoming common. The massive interest of public in bitcoin is increasing its value.