Wall Street financial giant Goldman Sachs disclosed a significantly larger exposure to cryptocurrency assets in its Q4 2025 13F filing detailing its financial asset holdings. The filing reveals its latest cryptocurrency asset holdings exceeded $2.36 billion as of the end of Q4 2025, marking a further increase from the approximately $2.05 billion held in Q4 2024. According to the latest disclosure, Goldman Sachs holds roughly $1.1 billion in Bitcoin assets, about $1 billion in Ethereum, $153 million in Ripple (XRP), and approximately $108 million in Solana, accounting for about 0.33% of its total investment portfolio.
Regarding crypto asset allocation disclosed in 13F filings by Wall Street institutions, giants like Goldman Sachs primarily gain exposure through crypto-related ETFs/ETPs (and their derivative options) traded on U.S. stock exchanges, rather than directly reporting "holdings of spot currency" in the 13F. The 13F itself discloses "13(f) securities" as defined by the SEC (primarily U.S. stocks, ETFs, options, etc.) and represents a snapshot of quarter-end holdings, filed within 45 days after the quarter ends.
Goldman Sachs's latest allocation move highlights that Wall Street financial giants appear to be beginning to favor exposure to tokens beyond the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, Bitcoin and Ethereum. For instance, they have started actively embracing exposure to Ripple and Solana. Structurally, Goldman's crypto asset allocation now resembles a shift where Bitcoin's share has relatively decreased, Ethereum's weighting has increased, and significant new allocations have been made to ETFs related to Ripple (XRP) and Solana.
Furthermore, judging by the scale of Goldman Sachs's crypto asset holdings in Q4, the allocation exceeding $2.36 billion in crypto ETFs surpassed both the same period last year and Q3 2025. From a sentiment perspective, for cryptocurrency assets currently experiencing extremely weak performance—especially Bitcoin, which recently saw a panic-driven plunge breaching the critical $60,000 level—the news of Goldman's crypto-related exposure disclosure in the 13F, while reflecting Q4 dynamics, could still provide marginal bullish sentiment support for the currently battered crypto market. It reinforces the optimistic growth narrative that "traditional top-tier financial institutions are still participating in and allocating to digital assets," at least through compliant vehicles like ETFs.
This disclosure also positions Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs as one of the major U.S. commercial banks with the largest exposure to crypto-related assets, although it still constitutes a very small percentage of its total holdings. A closer examination of the asset disclosure file shows that Goldman's exposure to Ripple (XRP) specifically comes almost entirely from XRP Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), with a total holding value of approximately $153 million. Statistical data indicates that spot XRP ETFs in the U.S. stock market collectively hold net assets calculated to exceed $1.04 billion. XRP ETFs have been trading for 56 days and have experienced net outflows on only 4 days.
Goldman Sachs is one of the world's most influential investment banks, providing various financial services including M&A advisory, capital market investments, block trading, and restructuring for governments and large corporations. Any movements in its asset allocations disclosed in the 13F, as well as dynamics in its investment research outlooks, significantly impact global financial markets. As of early 2026, this Wall Street super-investment bank managed approximately $3.6 trillion in assets under supervision/custody for institutional and private clients. It also operates an immense trading, asset management, and high-net-worth wealth management business. As a core barometer of global financial markets, its portfolio disclosures, insights, and any degree of change often reflect the broader trading sentiment of institutional investors.
Historically, Goldman Sachs's research team and senior executives maintained a skeptical public stance towards Bitcoin. Prior to 2020, the firm's leadership and research teams described Bitcoin as a speculative asset, emphasizing its limited utility as a circulating currency and lack of intrinsic cash flow. The company consistently categorized crypto assets as unsuitable for conservatively inclined investment portfolios, highlighting their extreme volatility and significant regulatory risks. As institutional demand for crypto allocation gradually increased after 2020, Goldman's cautious stance began to soften. The firm chose to restart its cryptocurrency trading desk, expand derivative access channels, and publish objective research reports on cryptocurrencies, acknowledging Bitcoin's potential as an inflation hedge, though still not endorsing it as a core global asset class with a "Wall Street seal of approval."
Following the crypto winter of 2022, the financial giant again emphasized major risks related to infrastructure and counterparties. Recently, Goldman has shifted towards cautious participation in the crypto wave. The institution prefers a strategy of cautious crypto asset deployment through crypto-related ETFs, structured products, and Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization initiatives, while maintaining its long-held research view that crypto assets are speculative. Historically, Goldman's allocation scale to crypto ETFs has clearly become more substantial since 2024.
It is important to note that the crypto asset allocation shown in the aforementioned 13F document occurred in Q4 2025. Regarding the period of significant panic selling from late January to early February, it is unclear whether Goldman Sachs has liquidated positions or bought the dip in crypto assets. During Tuesday's U.S. trading session and early Wednesday Asian hours, Bitcoin (BTC-USD), the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, continued to hover around $65,000 to $69,000. A senior analyst from Compass Point suggested that after the recent irrational panic selling, the largest cryptocurrency might be nearing a bottom. Last week, as the cryptocurrency briefly fell below $60,000, selling intensified further, recording its worst single-day drop since November 2022. This large-scale sell-off also signaled liquidity stress in the crypto market, posing a crisis of confidence for Bitcoin. Bitcoin's price had staged a strong rebound last Friday but has since been fluctuating around the $65,000-$70,000 mark.
Latest statistics show Bitcoin recently received new dip-buying support from some of its largest holders. However, the demand return remains narrow enough to raise doubts about whether this marks the beginning of a recovery in crypto market risk appetite or is merely a damage/loss control measure by these major Bitcoin holders. So-called "Bitcoin whale" wallets accumulated approximately 53,000 Bitcoins over the past week, the largest buying spree since November, following weeks of heavy selling by these large holders. This type of buying helped stabilize the price after a significant pullback, even as most institutional investors remained on the sidelines. Data from industry research firm Glassnode indicates that wallets holding over 1,000 Bitcoins accumulated over $4 billion worth of the cryptocurrency during this period, interrupting a months-long selling trend that had driven Bitcoin down about 40% from its October highs.
Therefore, interpreting Goldman's Q4 allocation to crypto ETF assets as a strong signal driving a post-plunge reversal is clearly insufficient, primarily because the 13F is inherently lagging disclosure. According to SEC rules, institutions must file within 45 days after the quarter ends, disclosing a snapshot of holdings as of the quarter's end, which is not equivalent to "buying right now." In other words, during fragile market sentiment, it acts more as a psychological anchor that "institutions are still in the game" rather than direct evidence that "capital is flowing back in."
Nevertheless, it is undeniable that Goldman's increased allocation to crypto ETFs supports the bullish narrative layer—namely, that holding cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum through compliant financial products like ETFs (as opposed to direct on-chain custody) is interpreted by the market as a continuation of the "compliance and institutionalization" process. However, the factors truly determining "whether a rebound can occur and how far it can go" remain the scale of hardcore incremental capital inflows, ETF net inflows/outflows and spot trading volume, leverage liquidations, macro liquidity and interest rate expectations, and on-chain asset supply/demand dynamics. A single institution's lagged disclosure is typically insufficient to override these dominant factors.