Wall Street Firms Cut Bitcoin ETF Holdings by 68,000 BTC

Nine large Wall Street firms trimmed their spot Bitcoin ETF positions by roughly 68,000 BTC between September 2025 and June 2026, according to Bitcoinist, citing research from Galaxy. Because all institutions filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission together reduced holdings by about 48,000 BTC over the same period, the remainder of the market was adding exposure, not retreating.

Galaxy’s figures put aggregate reported institutional holdings at approximately 355,000 BTC-equivalent at the end of September 2025 and around 307,000 BTC by June 2026, a 14% drop. The sellers named in the research include Goldman Sachs, Millennium Management, Brevan Howard and Tudor Investment. On the other side, Morgan Stanley’s wealth management arm, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council were among the buyers.

Also readBitcoin ETFs Shed $484.9M in Worst Day Since June 25

Less profit in the cash-and-carry trade

The selling lines up with a strategy rather than a change of view on Bitcoin itself. Some hedge funds run a cash-and-carry trade, buying spot ETF exposure while selling Bitcoin futures to collect the gap between the two prices with limited directional risk. As the futures premium narrowed, Galaxy’s analysis suggests the trade left only a small edge over short-term US Treasury bills before trading costs, giving some firms little reason to keep the positions open.

Bitcoinist frames the shift as a change in who owns the exposure rather than a loss of institutional demand. Sovereign funds and wealth managers tend to run longer horizons and may use ETFs for portfolio diversification, a different objective from capturing short-term spreads.

Also readAllen Helm: Bitcoin Shifts From Speculation to Bank Boardrooms

A separate survey points to European retail demand

Separately, Crypto Briefing reported on an OKX survey in which 19% of European respondents called cryptocurrencies a more viable route to lasting wealth, against 8% who preferred retirement plans. Crypto Briefing ties that sentiment to the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation and notes that prediction-market odds on Ethereum reaching $10,000 by December 31, 2026, stood at 1% YES. That implied probability is a snapshot of trader pricing for one contract, not a forecast, and it sits alongside rather than confirming Galaxy’s institutional ownership data.

Why it matters

ETF flow headlines can obscure who is actually behind a sale. If the largest declines come from funds unwinding an arbitrage position, the signal is different from long-horizon investors abandoning the asset, and the buyers in Galaxy’s data are the type of holder who tends to sit through drawdowns. The gap between the 11% fall in ETF holdings and the 53% fall in price during the same stretch suggests ETF owners as a group proved stickier than the market move would imply.

What to watch

The next round of SEC filings will show whether sovereign funds and wealth managers kept accumulating through the third quarter, which Galaxy’s June 2026 cutoff does not capture. A rebound in futures premiums could also pull trading firms back into the trade.

Nothing here is financial advice. Bitcoin and Bitcoin ETF markets are volatile and uncertain, and holdings data describes past positioning, not future prices.

Sources: Bitcoinist, Crypto Briefing