Wall Street promotes "compliant" purchases of cryptocurrencies! Goldman Sachs increases layout through ETF, Ripple and Solana are listed for the first time.

The Wall Street financial giant Goldman Sachs disclosed its more prominent exposure to cryptocurrency assets in its 13F financial asset holdings detailed file for the fourth quarter of 2025, showing that its latest cryptocurrency assets holdings as of the fourth quarter of 2025 exceeded $2.36 billion, a further increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2024 (approximately $2.05 billion). The latest disclosure document shows that Goldman Sachs holds about $1.1 billion worth of Bitcoin assets, about $1 billion worth of Ethereum, $153 million worth of Ripple, and approximately $108 million worth of Solana, accounting for approximately 0.33% of its total investment portfolio. In terms of the Wall Street cryptocurrency asset allocation disclosed in the 13F report, Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street financial giants primarily achieve exposure through cryptocurrency-related ETFs/ETPs (and their derivative options) traded on the US stock market, rather than directly holding "spot coins" in the 13F report. 13F disclosures themselves are Securities and Exchange Commission-defined "13(f) securities" (mainly US stocks, ETFs, options, etc.), and are snapshots of the holdings at the end of the quarter, to be reported within 45 days after the quarter end. Goldman Sachs' latest move in cryptocurrency asset allocation highlights that Wall Street financial giants seem to be favoring currencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, such as actively embracing Ripple and Solana exposure. Structurally, Goldman Sachs' allocation of cryptocurrency assets appears to be "Bitcoin share is relatively declining, Ethereum weight is increasing, and a heavy addition of Ripple (XRP) and Solana-related ETF configurations." In addition, based on Goldman Sachs' cryptocurrency asset holdings in the fourth quarter, the scale of over $2.36 billion in cryptocurrency ETF allocations exceeded that of the same period in the previous year and the third quarter of 2025. From the perspective of emotional catalysts, for the currently extremely weak cryptocurrency assets, especially Bitcoin trading prices that recently experienced panic selling and fell below the important $60,000 mark, the news of "Goldman Sachs disclosing cryptocurrency-related exposure in 13F" in the fourth quarter of assets allocation dynamics may provide marginal bullish sentiment support for the currently struggling cryptocurrency market. It reinforces the optimistic narrative that "traditional top-tier financial institutions are still participating in and allocating digital assets (at least through compliant tools such as ETFs)." This disclosure also makes Goldman Sachs, a Wall Street giant, one of the institutions with the largest exposure to cryptocurrency-related assets among major US commercial banks, even though its proportion of total holdings is still very small. Upon further examination of the disclosed asset file, Goldman Sachs' exposure to Ripple (XRP) mainly comes from XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with a total holding value of approximately $153 million. Statistics show that the total net assets of current XRP ETFs in the US stock market amount to over $1.04 billion in value. XRP ETF has been trading for 56 days, with net outflows recorded for only 4 days. Goldman Sachs, one of the most influential investment banks in the world, provides various financial services such as M&A, capital market investments, bulk trading, and restructuring advice to governments and large corporations worldwide. Any movement in asset allocation on the 13F disclosure level or dynamic investment research reports will have a significant impact on the global financial markets. As of early 2026, this Wall Street super investment bank manages entrusted/regulatory assets for institutional and private clients totaling approximately $3.6 trillion. It also operates massive trading, asset management, and high net worth wealth management businesses. As one of the core indicators of the global financial markets, its investment portfolio disclosure, insights, and any degree of changes often reflect broader institutional investor sentiment. Contrary to the cautious stance on Bitcoin, Goldman Sachs has begun to embrace the risk exposure of Bitcoin Historically, Goldman Sachs' research team and senior executives have long been skeptical about Bitcoin. Before 2020, the company's executives and research team described Bitcoin as a speculative asset with limited use as a means of circulation and no intrinsic cash flow. The company consistently defined cryptocurrency assets as not suitable for conservative investors and emphasized their high volatility and significant regulatory risks. As institutional demand for cryptocurrency asset allocation gradually increased after 2020, Goldman Sachs began to soften its cautious stance on cryptocurrencies. It chose to restart its cryptocurrency trading desk, expand access to derivative products, and issue objective research reports on cryptocurrencies, acknowledging that Bitcoin may serve as a hedge against inflation, but still not considering it as a core asset class for global allocation endorsed by Wall Street. After the cryptocurrency winter of 2022, the financial giant once again emphasized significant risks related to infrastructure and counterparties. Recently, Goldman Sachs has turned to cautiously participate in the cryptocurrency trend. The institution tends to strategically allocate cryptocurrency assets through ETFs, structured products, and RWA tokenization measures, while still maintaining a long-term speculative view on cryptocurrency assets. Comparing to history, the scale of Goldman Sachs' allocation to cryptocurrency ETFs has significantly increased since 2024. Goldman Sachs' 13F disclosure of cryptocurrency assets is already outdated However, it is worth noting that the aforementioned 13F data file showing Goldman Sachs' allocation to cryptocurrency assets occurred in the fourth quarter of 2025, and it is unclear whether Goldman Sachs has liquidated or added to its cryptocurrency assets during the recent significant panic selling at the end of January and early February. During the US stock trading on Tuesday and early Asian markets on Wednesday, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Bitcoin (BTC-USD), continued to fluctuate around $65,000 to $69,000. A senior analyst at Compass Point stated that after a recent round of irrational panic selling, this largest cryptocurrency may be approaching a bottom. Last week, as Bitcoin briefly fell below $60,000, the selling intensified, recording its worst single-day decline since November 2022, signaling a liquidity crisis in the cryptocurrency market and a crisis of trust in Bitcoin. The Bitcoin price briefly rebounded last Friday but has been fluctuating around the $65,000 to $70,000 level since then. The latest statistics show that Bitcoin has received new support from some of its largest holders, with approximately 53,000 new Bitcoins accumulated in the past week, the largest buying round since November. Before that, these large holders had weeks of heavy selling. This buying helped stabilize the price after the significant pullback, even though most institutional investors remain on the sidelines. Data from the industry research firm Glassnode shows that wallets holding more than 1,000 Bitcoins increased their holdings by over $4 billion in value during this period, breaking months of selling, as this selling has caused Bitcoin to drop by about 40% from its peak in October. Therefore, if Goldman Sachs' latest actions in allocating cryptocurrency assets via ETFs are considered a strong signal to "drive the reversal after this round of sell-off", the impact may not be strong since 13F disclosures are lagging. According to SEC rules, institutions must submit them within 45 days after the quarter end, and they represent a snapshot of holdings as of the end of the quarter, not necessarily indicating current buying activities. In other words, during times of fragile market sentiment, it serves more as a psychological anchor that "institutions are still present," rather than direct evidence of "funds flowing back in." However, without a doubt, Goldman Sachs' increased allocation to cryptocurrency ETF assets is a positive narrative layer. Holding through compliant financial trading products like ETFs (rather than direct holdings on the chain) will be understood by the market as "further advancing the compliance and institutionalization of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum." Nevertheless, the real factors determining whether there will be a rebound and how far-reaching it will be are still the inflow of incremental funds, the net subscription/redemption of ETFs, spot trading volume, leverage liquidation, macro liquidity and interest rate expectations, and the supply and demand structure of on-chain assets. A single institution's lagging disclosure is usually not enough to reverse these dominant factors.