Banking giant Goldman Sachs was “not believer” into crypto until their recent SEC filing. In a 13F filing at the U.S SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), the banking firm disclosed owning Bitcoin ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) investments.
The humongous crypto investment holdings of Goldman Sachs present a contrasting image of the organization’s previous beliefs. The Wall Street bank was skeptical about cryptocurrencies in the beginning. This was because of its clients’ apathy into crypto back then.
As per Q2, 2024 SEC’s filing of Goldman Sachs states a whopping $418 Million BTC spot ETFs under their control. This ownership stake is inclusive of the following crypto investments:
$238.6 Million iShares Bitcoin Trust with 6,991,248 shares
$79.5 Million Fidelity Bitcoin ETF with 1,516,302 shares
$35.1 Million Grayscale BTC with 660,183 shares
$56.1 Million Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin with 940,443 shares
$8.3 Million Bitwise Bitcoin ETF with 253,961 shares
$749,469 WisdomTree Bitcoin with 11,773 shares
$299,900 ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF with 5,000 shares
After the market closed today, Goldman Sachs filed a 13F disclosing the following positions as of June 30:$238.6 million iShares Bitcoin Trust (6,991,248 shares)$79.5 million Fidelity Bitcoin ETF (1,516,302 shares)$35.1 million Grayscale BTC (660,183 shares)$56.1 million…
— MacroScope (@MacroScope17) August 13, 2024
The Goldman Sachs Crypto Reality
The holdings of Goldman Sachs have revealed that the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) held under BlackRock has proved to be a flow-gathering standout among the organizational investors. Considering the reports, the net inflows in Q1 for Black Rock’s ETF’s were stored as the company’s spot BTC ETF.
The ETF Store president, Nate Geraci, stated that iShares BTC ETF invested around $20.5 in crypto this year.
According to Tradeweb’s global head of equities, Adam Gould, organizational investors were lining up to invest in and own these ETFs. This trend was persistent until months after the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs. Institutional investors were keen on gaining exposure to these assets.
He wrote in a blog that IBIT ETF on the Tradeweb platform marked an average volume of $4.2 Million daily in the first half of the year.
iShares Bitcoin ETF has taken in approx $20.5bil this yr…Out of *all* 375 new ETF launches in 2024, next closest non-spot btc ETF = $1.3bil.Numbers are comical at this point.Spot btc ETFs (IBIT, FBTC, ARKB, BITB) = top 4 launches of 2024.Global X Russell 2000 ETF = 5th.
— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) August 14, 2024
Did Goldman Sachs Not Believe in Crypto?
The chief investment officer at Goldman Sachs’ wealth management unit, Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, stated that their bank does not believe this is an “investment asset class.”
She claimed they were “not believers in crypto” in an April interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Rahmani had said that her bank’s clients were aware about her team’s distrust of crypto and never demanded for a start into this field.
Although most major financial biggies have been keen into crypto investments, the likes of Goldman Sachs were skeptical about it in the beginning. Taking an example of Citigroup, the organization had declared that it had used Avalanche to understand the private equity funds, which would further help them in shaping the capital markets.
