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August 14 is the statutory deadline for the U.S. SEC to require institutional investors to submit Q2 13F filings. After the concentrated disclosures, Wall Street’s crypto holdings are once again in the spotlight.
This quarter’s institutional moves contrasted sharply with price action. Bitcoin’s price fell about 14.2%, while institutions’ reported crypto holdings actually increased.
According to Bitcoin Strategy’s calculations based on 13F data, institutional Bitcoin holdings rose from about 498,000 coins to about 536,000 coins, a quarter-over-quarter increase of 7.5%. Over the same period, total ETF holdings actually fell from about 1.297 million coins to about 1.211 million coins.
According to SoSoValue data, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs continued to see net redemptions in Q2, with net outflows of about $2.4 billion and $4.5 billion in May and June respectively; June marked the worst single month since launch. Ethereum ETFs also posted cumulative net outflows of about $700 million over the same period.
At the same time, holdings are concentrating at the top. The number of institutions reporting Bitcoin holdings fell from about 2,000 to about 1,900. According to Bloomberg data, as of August 13, IBIT alone had about 1,500 institutional holders and net assets of about $47.35 billion.
Banks’ Ethereum growth outpaced Bitcoin across the board
Previously, ChainCatcher noted in its Q1 holdings review that institutional appetite for Ethereum allocation was rising, with Jane Street, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan adding Ethereum ETFs during the outflow phase. In Q2, this trend was confirmed on the banking side.
According to DWF Labs’ calculations, measured by corresponding crypto asset quantities, Morgan Stanley’s Q2 BTC exposure rose 3.7% quarter-over-quarter, while ETH exposure rose 18.6%. JPMorgan’s BTC exposure rose 12.2%, and ETH exposure rose 67.3%. Both banks’ ETH growth rates were clearly higher than their BTC growth rates.
The individual level is more intuitive. Morgan Stanley’s ETHA rose about 202% to 4.6 million shares, JPMorgan’s ETHA rose about 338% to nearly 1.17 million shares, and Bank of America’s ETHA jumped from about 67,500 shares to about 1.98 million shares, roughly 29 times its previous level.
But in fact, Ethereum spot ETFs overall saw net outflows in Q2. SoSoValue data shows April still had about $356 million in net inflows, while May and June had net outflows of about $541 million and $529 million respectively, bringing total Q2 net outflows to about $714 million.
Jane Street bought back, hedge funds shifted positions into options
Last quarter, Jane Street slashed its IBIT position by about 71%, leading the market to speculate that it was bearish on Bitcoin. This quarter it reversed and added back about 24.9 million shares of IBIT, a quarter-over-quarter jump of about 324%, making it one of the largest buyers of the quarter. Its spot Bitcoin ETF exposure now stands at about $990 million, with about $828 million in IBIT.
As an authorized participant and market maker, its quarter-end inventory is tied to creation/redemption and hedging, so a large increase in spot does not equal a directional bet.
Notably, 13F only reports quarter-end spot long positions. If options are added back, the picture reverses for several institutions.
Global macro hedge fund Brevan Howard cut spot IBIT from 24.3 million shares to 7.21 million shares in Q2, a reduction of about 70.4%. But it simultaneously held call options corresponding to about 7.23 million shares of IBIT and put options on 5.27 million shares.
Graham Capital cut spot IBIT from about 926,000 shares to 259,000 shares over the same period, a reduction of about 72%, while holding put options corresponding to about 1.74 million shares of IBIT, with a reported value of about $57.94 million. Multi-strategy giant Millennium cut spot IBIT from about 19.29 million shares to 9.69 million shares, a reduction of about 49.8%.
UBS’s direct IBIT holdings rose only about 12% to 407,890 shares, but shares underlying call options soared from 80,000 to about 1.95 million, a quarterly increase of more than 24 times, while put options fell by about 53% over the same period.
In contrast, Paul Tudor Jones’s fund Tudor looked conflicted: it increased spot IBIT by nearly 20% to 688,500 shares, ending nearly a year of selling, while cutting IBIT-linked call options by about 85%, from 998,000 shares to about 148,000 shares.
Institutions diverged on crypto stocks
We previously mentioned that crypto-related stocks are becoming an allocation option institutions cannot avoid. Among them, Strategy is the most representative.
In Q2, Strategy tore a hole in its “never sell Bitcoin” narrative: at the end of May it sold 32 Bitcoin for the first time to pay preferred stock dividends, and on June 29 its board authorized a framework to monetize up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin.
The 13F cutoff was June 30, so the larger actual selling occurred after quarter-end, and the narrative around the BTC proxy changed.
Filings show Bank of America cut Strategy from about 3.97 million shares to about 1.18 million shares, a reduction of about 70%. Renaissance bought 422,900 new shares, bringing its total position to 2.55 million shares, worth about $242 million. BlackRock also increased MSTR to about 19.39 million shares, worth about $1.69 billion. However, as the market’s largest index issuer, BlackRock’s addition may have been more passive index-driven allocation.
Renaissance Technologies newly purchased 422,881 shares of Strategy, lifting its total holdings to 2.55 million shares, with a position value of $242.3 million, an increase of 20%. Royal Bank of Canada added 46,000 shares of Strategy and now holds about 385,000 shares in total, worth about $37.2 million, an increase of 13.5% from its previous position.
In addition, Circle was one of the few related assets broadly favored. Morgan Stanley boosted it from about 1.46 million shares to about 8.32 million shares, while ARK added about 1% to 4.56 million shares. On Coinbase, the two took opposite actions: Morgan Stanley cut about 550,000 shares, while ARK added about 5.8% to 2.51 million shares and also trimmed Robinhood by about 12.8%.
It is worth noting that ARK’s Circle weighting fell from about 3.34% in Q1 to 1.85%, but the share count actually increased slightly. The weighting decline was mainly dilution after the new SpaceX position enlarged the portfolio.
Furthermore, after sharply increasing its Circle position in Q2, Morgan Stanley cut its CRCL target price from $106 to $38 in early August, arguing that the contraction in USDC scale exposed the sensitivity of Circle’s reserve income and meant the revenue structure would tilt toward lower-margin transaction income.
New money entered for the first time, old money stayed put
In Q2, Spain’s Banco Santander disclosed Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF holdings for the first time, though the position was tiny within its U.S. equity portfolio of more than $10 billion. UBS’s crypto exposure also rose quarter by quarter, and this quarter it added a position of about $1.5 million in miner American Bitcoin.
Morgan Stanley also initiated new positions in Grayscale Solana Staking ETF and Fidelity Solana Fund in Q2, with market values of about $4.25 million and $2.26 million respectively. JPMorgan also opened a new position in Bitwise Solana Staking ETF and bought back XRP, which it had liquidated in Q1, taking small positions through Bitwise and Grayscale XRP funds.
Furthermore, investment advisory firm Edelman Financial Engines disclosed that it holds approximately $34 million in spot Bitcoin ETF positions, mainly allocated to BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Grayscale-related products. While the position still accounts for only a small share of its overall portfolio, it has already surpassed its roughly $25 million stake in Amazon.
Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council kept their IBIT positions unchanged at about 14.7219 million shares and 8.2187 million shares, respectively, totaling about $764 million. Their accumulation pace over several consecutive quarters was paused in the second quarter.
Harvard Universityendowment fund held about 3.0446 million IBIT shares worth about $101.4 million, exactly unchanged from the end of Q1, ending two consecutive quarters of reductions. Its holdings in gold products, iShares Gold Trust and SPDR Gold Trust, totaled about $171.2 million, already surpassing its bitcoin exposure.
Institutional Crypto Allocation Shift Signals
Putting this quarter’s institutional moves together, several directional signals are taking shape.
First, ETF fund flows and institutional behavior are decoupling, and the institutionalization of crypto assets is deepening.
Second, institutions are increasingly split on crypto-related stocks, especially after Strategy began selling coins.
In addition, Ethereum has become a clear buy on the institutional side, and third-quarter fund flows are turning in the same direction.
According to SoSoValue data, Ethereum ETFs saw net inflows of about $365 million in July and about $243 million so far in August, totaling more than $600 million over the two months. ETH’s price has returned from about $1,570 at the end of June to around $1,900 currently, up about 20%.
Even BitMine, an Ethereum treasury company, is strengthening in tandem, with its stock price rising from about $13.3 at the end of June to nearly $19, up about 40%.
Source: www.panewslab.com