Summary
- Barclays said it increased its holdings of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF by about 48% from the previous quarter.
- Citigroup built a new position of $119 million in Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF and also increased its holdings of BlackRock’s ETF by about 50%.
- Banks’ spot Bitcoin ETF holdings totaled $258 million in third-quarter filings, accounting for 4.9% of the total, while U.S. institutions’ combined holdings also surged to $5.25 billion.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
Barclays increased its holdings of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund by nearly 50% from the previous quarter, adding to signs of growing bank exposure to the product.
Cointelegraph reported on Nov. 11 that Barclays disclosed in a 13F filing that it held 3.94 million shares of BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF as of the end of the third quarter. The stake was valued at about $187 million at the end of September. That was up about 48% from 2.66 million shares at the end of the second quarter.
Citigroup also built a new $119 million position in Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF in the third quarter. Its holdings of BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF rose to 521,000 shares in the third quarter from 347,000 shares in the second quarter, an increase of about 50%.
Bitwise analyst Kamran Khorshid said third-quarter filings show long-term investors are making up a growing share of spot Bitcoin ETF holders. Higher exposure from banks, including Citigroup, supports that trend.
He added that large banks and asset managers can now recommend Bitcoin ETFs to clients, and that the shift should become more visible in future institutional filings.
According to Bitwise, banks held about $258 million of spot Bitcoin ETFs based on third-quarter filings, accounting for 4.9% of the total. That was up from $107 million, or 3.2%, in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, 1,389 U.S. institutions that have disclosed third-quarter results held a combined $5.25 billion of spot Bitcoin ETFs. That was up about 56.7% from $3.35 billion in the second quarter.
JOON HYOUNG LEE
