On Friday, the bank filed Form 13F, which shows that as of the end of the third quarter, Barclays held 3.94 million shares of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF. This is 48% more than in the previous quarter. While assets in the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) were valued at $88.5 million (2.66 million shares) as of June 30, this position had grown to $187 million by September 30.
Bitwise analyst Kamran Khosravi noted in a conversation with Cointelegraph that these figures indicate a growing number of long-term holders of spot Bitcoin ETFs. He also added that banks are increasingly entering this market, citing Citigroup as an example.
Citigroup, incidentally, is keeping pace: the bank acquired positions in the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) worth approximately $119 million. In addition, according to the report, Citigroup increased its holdings of IBIT shares by 50%, bringing the total to 521,000 from 347,000 at the end of June.
These figures provide only an initial glimpse into how the ownership structure of Bitcoin ETFs is changing among institutional investors, as many major banks and hedge funds have not yet published their third-quarter reports. Managers are required to submit information regarding their assets by Monday.
Overall, the banking sector is clearly expanding its influence. According to Bitwise, banks’ share of disclosed spot Bitcoin ETF holdings among the top filers for the third quarter totaled $258 million (4.9%), whereas in the second quarter it was only $107 million (3.2%).
At the same time, investment advisors remain the primary holders, as before. Their disclosed positions totaled $3.5 billion (66.6%) compared to $2.2 billion in the previous quarter. Bitwise compared data from 1,389 organizations that had filed reports by Friday and found that the total value of their assets in spot Bitcoin ETFs jumped from $3.35 billion to $5.25 billion.
Khosravi believes that the influence of financial advisors from major banks and wealth management firms will soon become even more apparent in the reports, as they can now offer Bitcoin ETFs to their clients.
So far, this is only a preliminary picture, as giants such as Wells Fargo and JPMorgan, as well as hedge funds Schonfeld and Millennium, have not yet published their data due to the approaching deadline.
It’s also worth noting that an increase in an ETF’s dollar valuation doesn’t always mean that institutional investors have purchased more assets. Jonathan Randin, senior market analyst at PrimeXBT, explained that one should focus on the number of shares rather than just their dollar value. He noted that in the third quarter, the price of the IBIT rose by approximately 41%.
Additionally, according to a CoinShares survey in October, 40% of respondents hold digital assets for diversification, and less than 9% do so for speculative purposes.
Randin also emphasized that the reports reflect portfolio holdings as of September 30—that is, before the Bitcoin price fell and capital began flowing out of spot ETFs. According to SoSoValue, net inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs totaled approximately $6.34 billion in the third quarter, but in the fourth quarter (as of Tuesday), a net outflow of approximately $2.1 billion has already been recorded.