Goldman Sachs Embraces Crypto: $2.3 Billion Allocation Demonstrates Confidence in ETH

Author: Nancy, PANews

Today, it’s no longer surprising for Wall Street giants to enter the crypto space. In sectors like ETFs, RWA, derivatives, and other crypto tracks, the presence of mainstream institutions is becoming increasingly clear. The market’s real concern has shifted from whether to enter to how to allocate.

Recently, Goldman Sachs disclosed a crypto allocation of up to $2.3 billion. Although this still represents a “small position” within its overall asset portfolio and has been significantly reduced compared to previous levels, its holding structure is quite telling. Despite the vast market cap differences, Goldman maintains nearly equal exposure to BTC and ETH.

This detail may be more meaningful than the size of the holdings themselves.

Goldman Sachs Places a Confidence Bet on ETH Alongside BTC

In the current environment where Ethereum’s price remains under pressure and market sentiment has cooled, Goldman Sachs’s latest disclosed holdings send a different signal from the prevailing market mood.

According to the 13F filing, as of Q4 2025, Goldman Sachs indirectly holds about $2.361 billion in crypto assets through ETFs.

In the context of its total assets, this allocation is modest. At the same time, Goldman’s total investment portfolio amounts to $811.1 billion, with crypto exposure accounting for only about 0.3%. For traditional financial giants managing trillions or even tens of trillions of dollars, such a proportion is just a test of the waters. Mainstream players still see crypto as an alternative asset rather than a core holding. Small allocations can meet client needs, maintain market participation, and allow for strict risk control amid volatility.

What’s more noteworthy is not the scale but the structure and direction of the holdings.

In Q4 last year, the overall crypto market experienced a correction, with significant net outflows from spot ETF products. Goldman Sachs accordingly reduced its positions, with holdings in Bitcoin spot ETFs and Ethereum spot ETFs decreasing by 39.4% and 27.2%, respectively, quarter-over-quarter. Meanwhile, it initiated small positions in XRP ETF and Solana ETF, testing the second-tier assets.

By the end of the quarter, Goldman Sachs held approximately 21.2 million shares of Bitcoin spot ETFs, valued at about $1.06 billion; about 40.7 million shares of Ethereum spot ETFs, worth roughly $1 billion; and allocated about $152 million to XRP ETFs and $109 million to Solana ETFs.

In other words, nearly 90% of its crypto exposure remains concentrated in BTC and ETH. Compared to some aggressive asset managers or crypto-native funds, Goldman’s approach is clearly more conservative, prioritizing liquidity, compliance, and institutional acceptance.

More significant is the nearly equal weighting of BTC and ETH.

Currently, Bitcoin’s market cap is about 5.7 times that of Ethereum, yet Goldman Sachs does not weight its holdings by market cap. Instead, ETH and BTC are nearly “on equal footing.” This indicates that within its asset framework, Ethereum has been elevated to a second-tier strategic crypto asset. Moreover, during the Q4 reduction, ETH’s position was cut by 12% less than BTC’s. To some extent, this is a confidence vote in ETH’s potential.

This preference is not a fleeting trend.

Over the past few years, Goldman Sachs has continuously engaged in areas like asset tokenization, derivatives infrastructure, OTC trading, and more—many of which are highly related to the Ethereum ecosystem.

In fact, years ago, Goldman Sachs’s research department publicly predicted that ETH could surpass BTC in market cap in the coming years, citing its network effects and ecosystem advantages as a native smart contract platform.

This judgment persists. In last year’s “Global Macro Research” report, Goldman Sachs emphasized that, from real-world utility, user base, and technological iteration speed, Ethereum has the potential to become the core carrier of mainstream crypto assets.

Despite recent divergence between Ethereum’s price and fundamentals, Goldman Sachs remains relatively optimistic. It notes that on-chain activity paints a different picture: daily new addresses reached 427,000 in January, a record high, far exceeding the 162,000 daily addresses during DeFi’s summer in 2020. Daily active addresses also hit 1.2 million, another all-time high.

Perhaps, in Wall Street’s asset logic, Bitcoin has become a macro hedge tool, while Ethereum carries the structural narrative of on-chain finance and applications. They are different dimensions of allocation—Bitcoin as a store of value, ETH betting on infrastructure and network effects.

Goldman’s Shift, Wall Street’s Hesitation and Entry

Goldman Sachs is also a “latecomer” in crypto.

Looking at the longer timeline, this traditional financial institution’s entry has been cautious, following a “compliance-first, gradual testing” approach.

As early as 2015, Goldman Sachs filed a patent application for a securities settlement system based on SETLcoin, exploring blockchain-like technology to optimize clearing processes. At that time, Bitcoin had not yet entered mainstream consciousness; this was more a technical interest than an asset endorsement.

In 2017, as Bitcoin’s price soared to record highs, Goldman Sachs planned to set up a crypto trading desk to offer Bitcoin-related services; in 2018, it hired former crypto traders to prepare a Bitcoin trading platform. By then, Goldman Sachs had begun to engage directly with this emerging market.

The real turning point came in 2020. During that year, Goldman Sachs explicitly stated in a client conference call that Bitcoin could not even be considered an asset class, as it produces no cash flow and is not an effective inflation hedge. This public stance sparked considerable controversy.

Goldman Sachs began including Bitcoin in its weekly asset class reports in 2021.

A year later, its stance softened rapidly. In 2021, amid rising institutional demand, Goldman Sachs relaunched its crypto trading division, started trading Bitcoin derivatives, and partnered with Galaxy Digital to launch Bitcoin futures products. In 2022, it completed its first OTC crypto trade and expanded its digital assets team. By 2024, it was investing in multiple crypto companies and officially entered the spot ETF market.

Full acceptance truly arrived in the past two years.

In March 2025, Goldman Sachs mentioned cryptocurrencies for the first time in its annual shareholder letter, acknowledging increased industry competition and predicting that clearer regulation would drive a new wave of institutional adoption. It highlighted tokenization, DeFi, and stablecoins as areas poised for growth under new regulations. Recently, its CEO David Solomon publicly confirmed that the firm is increasing research and investment in tokenization, stablecoins, and prediction markets.

This kind of transformation is not uncommon among traditional old money.

For example, in 2025, Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital, admitted that although he first encountered Bitcoin in 2012, it took him eight years to make his first Bitcoin investment. The reason was that he initially didn’t understand it and was skeptical. Only after studying blockchain and Bitcoin mechanisms did he realize it was a “great technological breakthrough.” He even said that with some research, 90% of people would lean toward Bitcoin.

Today, Skybridge Capital holds a large amount of Bitcoin, with about 40% of client funds invested in digital assets. Amid recent bear markets, Scaramucci revealed that the firm has been gradually building Bitcoin positions at $84,000, $63,000, and in the current range, describing buying during the downturn as “like catching a falling knife,” but remaining firmly long-term bullish.

These Wall Street elite investors’ core decision-making factor is always risk prioritization, usually choosing to scale into positions only when risks are manageable.

Moreover, the decision cycle for institutions is a long-term process.

According to Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise, in a recent interview, the next wave of potential buyers will still be financial advisors, large brokerages like Morgan Stanley, family offices, insurance companies, and sovereign nations. Bitwise’s average client requires about eight meetings before allocating assets. Since they typically meet quarterly, “eight meetings” imply a decision cycle of around two years. Morgan Stanley only approved a Bitcoin ETF in Q4 2025, and their “eight-meeting clock” has just started. Actual capital inflows might not explode until 2027. This is similar to the launch of gold ETFs in 2004, where capital inflow increased gradually over eight years to reach the first peak. Most professional investors’ funds still do not hold Bitcoin.

The process of crypto assets moving from fringe assets to mainstream assets is slow and winding. When former skeptics start holding crypto in a compliant manner, and doubters become long-term allocators, the real change in the market may not be in price action but in the upgrade of participant structures.