The US investment bank Goldman Sachs holds various exchange-traded spot Bitcoin ETFs worth millions, as shown in the latest 13F form. Other large investment banks such as Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, meanwhile, are more cautious.
Recently, strong ETF activity was observed in the area of cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin ETFs were approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January, which also had an impact on Bitcoin. In March, the most popular of all cryptocurrencies temporarily rose to a new all-time high of 73,750.07 USD. By recently, it had fallen back to around 60,782 USD, but the price board is still up almost 45 percent on an annual basis (as of August 22, 2024).
“The crypto markets are strong because we have the change in sentiment. Crypto is now an asset class. It will be next year, it will be forever. And two years ago, that was not the case. There were risks around the asset class, and the risk has been de-risked,” CNBC quoted Mike Novogratz, head of Galaxy Digital, as saying.
Goldman Sachs relies on Bitcoin ETFs
Until mid-August, institutional investors with assets under management exceeding the 100 million USD mark were required to disclose their investments to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – including crypto investments. As part of this, it became apparent that Goldman Sachs had invested heavily in cryptocurrencies in the past quarter. The US investment bank therefore owns seven of the eleven Bitcoin spot ETFs listed on US stock exchanges. In the second quarter of 2024, Goldman Sachs acquired Bitcoin funds worth 418 million USD for its clients, according to the filing. The largest position was held by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust at 238 million USD. This is followed by shares in Fidelty’s Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) worth 79.5 million USD, Invesco Galaxy’s BTC ETF (BTCO) with 56.1 million USD and Grayscale’s GBTC with 35.1 million USD. The major US bank also holds smaller shares in the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB), the WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund (BTCW) and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB).
Mathew McDermott, Global Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, noted at the Consensus 2024 Festival in Austin that the approval of Bitcoin ETFs in the US represents a “major psychological turning point” for the industry. According to him, the Bitcoin ETF has been “obviously an amazing success,” as quoted by ReadWrite.
Other investment banks more cautious about crypto ETFs
While Goldman Sachs is obviously betting on Bitcoin ETFs, the competition has recently seen a slightly different picture. Morgan Stanley is considered to be one of the first major players on Wall Street to allow its financial advisors to offer Bitcoin ETFs to their clients early on. However, the bank has reduced its crypto holdings in the past quarter. As the 13F form shows, Morgan Stanley has reduced its position in spot Bitcoin ETFs from around 270 million USD to around 189 million USD. Almost all shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust were thrown out of the portfolio because it has a significantly higher management fee than comparable ETFs. Meanwhile, JPMorgan reported only minor holdings in cryptos.
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