Bank Clients Just Dipped Their Toes Into Bitcoin ETFs, but Q4 Could See a FOMO Spike

Wealth
management
clients
of
Wall
Street
banks
like
Goldman
Sachs,
Bank
of
America
and
Morgan
Stanley
in
the
third
quarter
continued
to
modestly
accumulate
(or
trade)
bitcoin

(BTC)
via
spot
bitcoin
exchange-traded
funds.
Given
the
huge
spike
in
crypto
prices
following
last
week’s
U.S.
presidential
election,
it’s
possible
the
action
will
perk
up
in
the
fourth
quarter.

“The
13F
filings
mirror
the
tepid
price
action
in
bitcoin
in
Q3,”
said
James
Van
Straten,
senior
analyst
at
CoinDesk.
“Most
institutions
are
slow
to
deploy
capital
and
to
observe
trends,
and
didn’t
take
the
initiative
to
front-run
a
historically
bullish
Q4.”

Goldman
Sachs
reported
holding
spot
bitcoin
ETF
shares
worth
$710
million
in
the
quarter
that
ended
Sept.
30,
as
clients’
allocations
into
the
ETFs
nearly
doubled,
up
from
$418
million
in
the
previous
quarter.
Most
of
the
bank’s
shares
were
in
BlackRock’s
iShares
Bitcoin
Trust
(IBIT),
in
which
it
held
just
shy
of
13
million
shares.

Other
top-tier
banks/wealth
management
operations,
including
Morgan
Stanley,
Cantor
Fitzgerald,
Royal
Bank
of
Canada,
Bank
of
America,
UBS
and
HSBC,
didn’t
add
to
or
subtract
much
from
their
positions.
A
new
entrant
was
Australian
investment
bank
Macquarie
Group,
which
purchased
132,355
shares
of
IBIT
worth
$4.8
million.
Wells
Fargo,
which
has
a
very
minor
stake
in
the
ETFs,
held
most
of
its
shares
in
the
Grayscale
Bitcoin
Trust
(GBTC)
and
Grayscale
Bitcoin
Mini
Trust
(BTC).

The
positions
were
reported
in
13F
filings,
a
quarterly
report
that
institutional
investors
with
over
$100
million
in
assets
under
management
are
required
to
file
to
disclose
their
holdings
of
certain
securities.
The
deadline
for
the
third
quarter
was
Thursday.

BlackRock
disclosed
a
stake
of
2.54
million
shares,
worth
$91.6
million
as
of
Sept.
30,
in
its
own
fund.

The
three-month
period
from
the
start
of
July
to
the
end
of
September
signaled
a
period
of
flat
to
downward
price
action
for
bitcoin,
with
the
price
largely
ranging
from
$53,000
to
$66,000.
This
followed
the
flat
to
downward
price
action
during
much
of
the
second
quarter,
so
it’s
possible
the
tepid
institutional
interest
reflected
the
pall
that
sat
over
the
market.

Things,
of
course,
have
changed
in
a
big
way
in
the
fourth
quarter
amid
the
run-up
to
and
following
the
election
of
crypto-friendly
Donald
Trump
to
the
U.S.
presidency.
Bitcoin
blasted
out
of
its
multi-month
range,
quickly
taking
out
March’s
record
of
$73,700
and
continuing
this
week
to
as
high
as
$93,400.

The
recent
price
action,
combined
with
a
hoped-for
crypto
embrace
by
the
Trump
administration
taking
office
in
January
might
inspire
a
good
deal
of
“fear
of
missing
out”
(FOMO)
in
institutional
players
and
their
clients.
It’s
at
least
somewhat
possible
the
next
batch
of
13Fs
coming
after
the
start
of
2025
could
prove
far
more
interesting
than
this
quarter’s.

“I
expect
a
lot
of
scrambling
behind
the
scenes
to
make
sure
institutions
have
at
the
bare
minimum
a
1%
allocation
due
to
crypto-friendly
president
Donald
Trump
and
bitcoin
breaking,”
van
Straten
said.