Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase also hold spot Bitcoin ETF shares.
Some of the world’s largest financial institutions are buying up shares in spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
On April 13, Goldman Sachs, a multinational investment bank boasting $2.8 trillion in assets under management (AUM), revealed it holds $418 million worth of shares in spot Bitcoin ETFs.
In its latest 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a mandatory quarterly report from investment managers with a more than $100M AUM, Goldman Sachs disclosed holding $238.7 million worth of shares in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT).
Goldman Sachs also holds $79.5 million worth of Fidelity Wise Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) shares, $56.2 million in Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCO) shares, $35.1 million of Grayscale Bitcoin ETF (GBTC) shares, and shares in the Bitcoin ETFs from Ark 21Shares, Bitwise, and WisdomTree worth $9.35 million combined.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs
On January 11, the SEC approved the launch of the first-ever spot Bitcoin ETFs. The landmark approval opened the floodgates to institutional entities investing in Bitcoin, including investment banks, pension funds, and hedge funds.
“For institutions, ETFs offer a regulated and secure method to include Bitcoin in their portfolios, aiding in diversification and potentially enhancing returns,” Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics company, wrote in a research note last week. “Institutions can trade these ETFs on traditional stock exchanges, simplifying the incorporation of Bitcoin into their existing investment strategies.”
Several major financial institutions have disclosed investments in spot Bitcoin ETFs since the funds’ January launch.
Morgan Stanley, a global investment bank with a $1.5 trillion AUM, reported holding $269 million worth of GBTC shares in its Q1 2024 filings. The bank’s Q2 filings are not yet released.
Wells Fargo, a multinational financial services company managing $603 billion in assets, reported $120 million worth of Bitcoin ETF holdings, primarily in GBTC, in its second-quarter filings.
JPMorgan Chase, another banking giant with a $2.9 trillion AUM, also reported holding roughly $1.4 million in spot Bitcoin ETFs and Bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) last quarter. However, the firm appears to have downsized its BTC position, with JPMorgan Chase reporting $2.7 million worth of Bitcoin exposure in Q1.
Bitcoin ETFs’ BTC holdings close in Satoshi Nakamoto’s Stash
The holdings of Bitcoin ETFs are quickly closing in on the famous BTC stash of Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, amid the funds’ success.
As of August 12, all 11 U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs collectivelyheld approximately 879,199 BTC, accounting for roughly 4.19% of Bitcoin’s 21 million BTC supply. By comparison, wallets linked with Nakamoto hold 1.1 million BTC.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs have attracted net inflows of $17.4 billion since launch, averaging at $117 million in daily inflows, according to data from Farside Investors. If the current trend continues, spot Bitcoin ETFs will overtake Nakamoto’s wallet by BTC holdings in roughly six months.
IBIT currently holds around 347,767 BTC, followed by GBTC with 233,839 Bitcoin.
The price of BTC is up 1.2% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.