Barclays reported holding 3.94 million shares of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF at the end of the third quarter of 2026, up 48% from the previous quarter. Citigroup reported a new position worth about $119 million in Fidelity’s Bitcoin fund and said its BlackRock ETF holdings rose 50% to about 521,000 shares.
Among 1,389 institutions that had filed third-quarter reports, banks held $258 million in spot Bitcoin ETFs, or 4.9% of reported holdings, up from $107 million, or 3.2%, in the second quarter, according to Bitwise. The figures are preliminary because major banks and hedge funds had yet to file. Analyst Jonatan Randin cautioned that higher dollar values do not necessarily mean new buying: the filings show holdings as of Sept. 30, before Bitcoin’s subsequent decline and ETF outflows.
