30s Summary

Wall Street giants such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley are gradually increasing their stakes in Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, despite a relatively unchanged amount. The Q4 2024 outlook is optimistic due to Bitcoin’s soaring prices. Australian investment bank Macquarie Group has significantly upped its investment, purchasing shares worth nearly $4.8 million. However, subdued Bitcoin trading activity in Q3 2024 indicates a watch-and-wait investment approach. Analysts anticipate surging investor interest in Bitcoin in Q1 2025 following the election of crypto-friendly Donald Trump as the US president.

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Big names in finance such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley have been gradually buying more and more shares of the bitcoin exchange-traded funds on behalf of their clients. Even though the amount hasn’t changed that drastically, some insiders believe that the fourth quarter might see some action as bitcoin’s prices have recently hit new highs.

In the third quarter, these Wall Street banks’ wealthy clients maintained their slight interest in bitcoin, trading it via bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Now, with the recent spike in cryptocurrency prices after the U.S. presidential election, there’s a good chance trading activity might get a bit more exciting in the fourth quarter.

However, James Van Straten from CoinDesk said that the limited activity in bitcoin trading during the third quarter reflects the investors’ watch-and-wait strategy, which doesn’t anticipate the typical upswing in the fourth quarter.

Specifically, Goldman Sachs reported holding shares in spot bitcoin ETFs that were worth $710 million in the third quarter. Other well-known banks and wealth management companies didn’t change their positions much. The exception was the Australian investment bank Macquarie Group, which purchased around 132,355 shares worth approximately $4.8 million.

Positions were reported in so-called 13F filings, which every institutional investor managing over $100 million must submit to disclose their security holdings. The deadline for the third quarter was due last Thursday.

During the third quarter, the price of bitcoin was pretty flat or even declined, which might have contributed to the lackluster interest from institutional investors.

However, the fourth quarter kicked off with a bang as bitcoin prices rose dramatically after the election, hitting record-breaking levels. Now that crypto-friendly Donald Trump has been elected as the U.S. president, there’s a real chance that huge investors might get a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out). For these reasons, action in the first quarter of 2025 could be much more interesting.

According to Van Straten, many institutions are likely going to rush to make sure they have at least a 1% allocation given that the president-elect is so pro-crypto and bitcoin prices are soaring.