Goldman Sachs invests $1.5B in Bitcoin and $476M in Ether ETFs

Goldman Sachs significantly increased its holdings in both Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) ETFs in the fourth quarter of 2024, signaling a growing institutional interest in cryptocurrency investments.

The investment bank's spot Ether ETF position grew by 2,000% to $476 million, while its Bitcoin ETF holdings more than doubled to $1.5 billion.

According to the firm's Feb. 11 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Goldman Sachs upped its Ether ETF exposure from $22 million to $476 million.

This was almost evenly split between BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) and the Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH), with $6.3 million invested in Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHE).

The financial institution increased its Bitcoin ETF holdings by 114% to $1.52 billion.

This included nearly $1.28 billion in shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), a 177% increase from Q3, and $288 million in shares of the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC).

While increasing positions in IBIT and FBTC, Goldman Sachs closed positions in Bitcoin ETFs from Bitwise and WisdomTree, along with joint offerings from Invesco and Galaxy, as well as ARK and 21Shares.

The increased exposure factored in rising market prices for BTC and ETH, which increased 41% and 26.3% from the beginning to the end of the fourth quarter, CoinGecko data shows.

This move marks a major shift for Goldman Sachs, which had previously resisted cryptocurrency investments.

In 2022, the firm's CEO David Solomon called Bitcoin "highly speculative."

Despite past criticisms, Goldman Sachs now has a dedicated crypto trading desk platform and has been involved in blockchain development.

 At the time of reporting, the Bitcoin (BTC) price was $95,762.55, and the Ethereum (ETH) price was $2,601.48.