Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley buy $600 million in Bitcoin ETFs in Q2

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley invested more than $600 million in spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during the second quarter of 2024, according to regulatory filings released on Wednesday.

The filings, known as 13-Fs, provide insights into positions held by institutional investors at the end of each quarter.

Goldman Sachs reported that it acquired roughly $418 million in various bitcoin ETFs. The bulk of this investment was in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:IBIT), with nearly 7 million shares valued at around $238 million as of June 30.

The IBIT is the largest spot Bitcoin ETF by market capitalization, with $20 billion in assets under management.

The bank also held stakes in the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF, the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (NYSE:BTCO), and smaller positions in other bitcoin ETFs launched earlier in the year.

Morgan Stanley also favored BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). As of June 30, the investment bank held over 5.5 million shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust, valued at nearly $188 million, making it one of the top five shareholders of the ETF.

Morgan Stanley had smaller holdings in the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (NYSE:ARKB) and the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (NYSE:GBTC). Notably, the bank made a big cut in its GBTC holdings, reducing it to about $148,000 from $269.9 million last quarter, according to its latest filing.

Neither Goldman Sachs nor Morgan Stanley disclosed whether these positions were acquired on behalf of clients or for their own accounts.