Share
Barclays and Citigroup are buying more spot Bitcoin ETFs. Their third-quarter filings now show it.
Barclays raised its stake in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) by 48%, to a position worth $187 million. Citi opened a new position of roughly $119 million in Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC). For two banks that once kept Bitcoin at arm’s length, that counts as a noticeable change in posture.
What the filings show
The numbers come from 13F filings. These are the quarterly reports that large institutional managers submit to show what they held at the end of each quarter.
Barclays held 2.66 million IBIT shares in the second quarter, valued at approximately $88.5 million. By September 30, that count had climbed to 3.94 million shares, worth $187 million.
The 48% figure describes the growth in shares. The dollar value climbed far faster, and price explains much of that gap.
IBIT’s price rose 41% during the third quarter. So Barclays did buy more, but the market also did some of the heavy lifting.
Citi moved on two fronts. Alongside the new FBTC position of around $119 million, the bank increased its IBIT holdings by roughly 50%, bringing them to 521,000 shares.
Banks are growing, advisers still rule
Zoom out, and the bank numbers fit a wider pattern. Collective bank holdings in spot Bitcoin ETFs reached $258 million among early filers, up from $107 million in the previous quarter.
The crypto and markets news you actually need—every morning.
Daily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy.
We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.
That lifts the banks’ share of institutional holdings to 4.9%, compared with 3.2% one quarter earlier.
Total institutional holdings in spot Bitcoin ETFs climbed to $5.25 billion, from $3.35 billion in the second quarter. The biggest slice by far belongs to investment advisers.
Advisers accounted for $3.5 billion, or 66.6% of the institutional total.
The deadline for remaining third-quarter filings is November 17. The current tallies reflect only the early filers, so the totals could shift once the rest of the paperwork arrives.
What this means for investors
The most direct read is that traditional finance is warming to regulated crypto products, one filing at a time. The increase in bank holdings from $107 million to $258 million in a single quarter shows momentum, even if the base was small.
There is an important caveat baked into the data. The filings capture positions as of September 30, and they do not account for market volatility after that date, including subsequent declines in Bitcoin’s price.
The filings also don’t explain motive. A bank’s position could reflect its own strategy, client activity, or other business needs, and the paperwork alone doesn’t distinguish between them.
Competition between issuers is another thread to watch. Citi’s decision to add FBTC while also growing its IBIT stake shows that BlackRock and Fidelity are both landing institutional business.
The next checkpoint is the November 17 filing deadline. Once the remaining third-quarter reports land, the picture of who owns spot Bitcoin ETFs, and how fast banks are catching up to advisers, should come into sharper focus.
