Goldman Sachs has significantly deepened its involvement in the cryptocurrency space, according to the SEC filing.
Thus, the investment bank has become the largest institutional holder of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) with 30.8 million shares valued at over $1.4 billion as of March 31.
This marks a 28% increase from its previous position of 24 million shares and reflects a strong vote of confidence in the Bitcoin ETF market. By surpassing other major investors such as Brevan Howard, Goldman Sachs has positioned itself at the forefront of institutional crypto exposure.
Additional heavyweights like Jane Street, D.E. Shaw and Symmetry Investments are also backing IBIT, pointing to rising interest from hedge funds and trading firms.
Smart money goes full risk-on
As of the end of 2024, Goldman Sachs reported $2.05 billion in crypto ETF holdings, including about $1.3 billion in BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF and $300 million in Fidelity’s. It also held nearly $500 million in Ethereum ETFs, evenly split between BlackRock and Fidelity.
Compared to the previous quarter’s total of $720 million, this represents a massive 50% surge in their crypto ETF exposure.
Goldman now expects core PCE to rise to 3.5% this year versus 3.0% under previous assumptions for less aggressive tariffs.They expect the Fed to cut three times in the second half of the year to address the hit to growth and employmenthttps://t.co/PAsjBvEtGc
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 31, 2025
The bank’s aggressive accumulation of crypto assets aligns with a broader shift in its macroeconomic outlook. Recently, Goldman revised its core PCE inflation forecast for 2024 to 3.5%, up from 3.0%, anticipating the Federal Reserve will respond by cutting interest rates three times in the second half of the year.
This dovish pivot could fuel further appetite for risk-on assets like cryptocurrencies and crypto-linked financial instruments.
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Meanwhile, BlackRock continues to engage regulators to shape the future of digital finance. In a meeting with the SEC’s Crypto Task Force on May 9, BlackRock discussed critical issues such as incorporating staking into crypto ETPs and advancing tokenization of traditional securities.
These developments suggest growing synergy between traditional finance and crypto markets, hinting at a broader wave of institutional adoption on the horizon.
