JPMorgan, UBS and Goldman Sachs Deepen Their Bitcoin Bets Even as the Bear Market Drags On
Three of the largest banks in the world added to their Bitcoin exposure during the second quarter, according to fresh SEC filings, even as the asset sat roughly 50 percent below its all time high. JPMorgan, UBS and Goldman Sachs all disclosed larger positions in spot Bitcoin ETFs, and Goldman went a step further by agreeing to buy an entire Bitcoin income ETF business.
THE 13F FILINGS TELL THE STORY
JPMorgan's latest 13F shows the bank added about $400 million to its position in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust during the second quarter, bringing its total holding to about $650 million, up from 3 million shares at the end of 2025 to 17.8 million shares by mid-2026. That buildup did not happen in a straight line. In the first quarter alone, JPMorgan's IBIT position jumped 174 percent, from around 3 million shares in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 8.3 million shares, and that increase came while Bitcoin's price was falling.
The move is notable given JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon's history with the asset. Dimon has spent years bashing Bitcoin, previously calling it a fraud and a Ponzi scheme and voicing worries about it being used for crime. The bank's own trading desk is telling a different story than its chairman.
UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, filed a similar update. The bank raised its BlackRock Bitcoin ETF holding to about 2.5 million shares worth nearly $90 million as of June 30, up from roughly 549,000 shares six months earlier. Measured by share count, the position expanded by about 355 percent, with UBS adding nearly 2 million shares during the period. That is a far bigger jump than a simple tripling, even though the value gain looked smaller because IBIT's price fell sharply over the same stretch. Filings do not say whether the shares reflect UBS's own money or client accounts held through its wealth management arm.
BITWISE'S MATT HOUGAN SAYS BITCOIN IS IGNORING BAD NEWS
The bank filings landed days after Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan made the case on Bloomberg Television that Bitcoin's refusal to react to bad news is itself a signal.
"One sign that you're at the bottom of a bear market is when an asset stops responding to bad news."
Hougan pointed to Strategy's Michael Saylor selling Bitcoin reserves, Strategy's preferred stock sliding toward $75, the odds of the Clarity Act passing falling from the mid 40s into the teens, and the $116 million Coldcard hardware wallet exploit as examples of setbacks the market barely reacted to. His read is that a bear market usually overreacts to bad news, and the fact that Bitcoin is not doing that now suggests sellers have already done most of their damage. He also said the next marginal buyer is already moving quietly in the background, with large wealth management platforms approving crypto ETFs one by one and advisers discussing two to four percent portfolio allocations, a slower and steadier form of demand than the retail-driven rallies of past cycles.
GOLDMAN SACHS GOES BIGGER WITH THE NEOS DEAL
Goldman Sachs did not stop at buying more ETF shares. The bank announced it will acquire NEOS Investments, a deal worth up to $2.25 billion that will give Goldman three crypto income ETFs: the Bitcoin High Income ETF, the Boosted Bitcoin High Income ETF and an Ethereum High Income ETF. The cash-and-equity deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, pending regulatory approval, and is tied to performance targets.
The prize is NEOS's flagship fund. By acquiring NEOS, Goldman gains a $1.1 billion covered-call Bitcoin fund yielding about 27 percent rather than having to launch a competing product of its own. NEOS, founded in 2022, manages about $30 billion across 19 options-based income ETFs, and combined with Goldman's existing business the deal will push the bank's total ETF assets under management above $130 billion, placing it among the world's eight largest active ETF managers. CEO David Solomon said the NEOS approach is "highly complementary" to Goldman's existing buffer, managed-outcome and income strategies.
It is worth being precise about what these funds actually hold. The Bitcoin ETFs in question do not hold the cryptocurrency directly. Instead they use derivatives to generate income from crypto-linked exposure, so the high headline yields come largely from selling options premium rather than reflecting Bitcoin's own price performance.
WHY THE BANKS KEEP BUYING WHAT THEY PUBLICLY DOUBT
None of this means JPMorgan, UBS or Goldman have decided Bitcoin belongs on their own balance sheets as a core holding. A 13F does not distinguish between a bank's proprietary money and client assets parked in a wealth management account, and UBS's stake, for instance, is still a tiny sliver of the $7.3 trillion it manages overall. What the filings and the Goldman acquisition show is something narrower and arguably more durable: the largest banks in the world are building the plumbing to sell Bitcoin exposure to their customers, whether or not their executives are personally convinced. That distribution layer, more than any single headline, is the trend worth watching as the bear market grinds on.
This story comes from the Simply Bitcoin Live show. Watch the full episode.
