Institutional Investors' BTC Holdings Hit Record High: From Goldman Sachs to BlackRock, Who Is Buying Up Cheap Market Chips?

In mid-February 2026, the crypto market is experiencing a rare divergence: “cold in perception, hot in data.”

According to Gate’s market data, BTC/USDT broke through the $68,000 mark in the early morning of February 12, with the 24-hour decline narrowing to 1.13%. Although the price still lags behind the historic peak of $126,000 in 2025, another set of numbers hidden in off-chain and ETF reports is sending a completely different signal: institutional investors’ total Bitcoin holdings have just surpassed their all-time high.

This is not an ordinary bottom-fishing move from the left side. From BlackRock’s massive position of 786,300 BTC in the IBIT spot Bitcoin ETF, to Binance’s SAFU fund rapidly accumulating 15,000 BTC within 48 hours, and Goldman Sachs even cutting its Bitcoin ETF holdings while simultaneously championing XRP and Solana as compliant assets—mainstream capital is no longer pretending not to see crypto assets but is beginning to systematically build positions.

Structural Shift in Holdings: Institutional Ownership Approaching Critical Threshold

Bitcoin is undergoing the longest, yet most solid “reallocation” since its listing.

Let’s look at the most tangible data point. As of February 10, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT’s custodial holdings have expanded to 786,300 BTC, managing assets worth $54.12 billion. What does this number mean? It’s 3.8 times the balance of Satoshi’s wallet and continues to grow at hundreds of millions of dollars per week.

More importantly, the duration of institutional funds has changed. On February 10, even as the market was still digesting nearly $318 million in ETF outflows from the previous week, spot Bitcoin ETF inflows reversed to a single day inflow of $166.5 million. Ark Invest’s ARKB attracted $68.5 million in a single day, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC with $56.9 million. Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas analyzed the holdings data and pointed out: even after a 30% market correction, less than 6% of institutional positions have been liquidated due to panic.

While retail investors anxiously take profits amid jagged candlesticks, millions of dollars are quietly rebalancing assets. On February 12, Gate’s order book for BTC/USDT showed a rare streak of active buy orders in the $67,800–$68,200 range, closely related to the execution pace of the SAFU fund and North American ETF market makers.

Dual-Driven: Corporate and Fund Sides—From Panic Selling to Faith-Based Dollar-Cost Averaging

Institutional entry is no longer just a slogan but is reflected in balance sheets and public statements by CEOs as a strategic imperative.

During the past 72 hours, as Bitcoin hovered around $68,000, the world’s largest listed company, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), executed another round of accumulation. Despite its unrealized losses expanding to $6.5 billion, CEO Michael Saylor declared on CNBC: “We will not sell, we only buy.” He also disclosed that the company spent another $90 million in the past week to purchase 1,142 BTC, bringing its total holdings to 714,644 BTC.

Saylor’s logic is no longer short-term arbitrage but viewing Bitcoin as a long-term core asset capable of outperforming the S&P 500 over a 4–8 year cycle. This understanding is shifting from a fringe dissent to a default consensus in Wall Street conference rooms.

Wells Fargo Opens the Door for Collateralized Loans: Bitcoin Gains “First-Class Asset” Status

The qualitative change in institutional participation in 2026 goes beyond “buying”—it’s about “using.”

Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of New York Mellon have recently launched Bitcoin ETF collateralized loan services. Institutional clients holding IBIT or FBTC can now obtain dollar liquidity without selling their assets. This marks the first time traditional finance has placed Bitcoin assets on the same financial tier as blue-chip government bonds.

What does this mean?

Bitcoin is no longer just a “stock waiting to rise” but a dynamic tool on the balance sheet. When institutions no longer worry about holding positions freezing liquidity, their willingness to hold and their position size ceilings will be fully unlocked.

What Are Institutions Buying? Not Just BTC Anymore: The Era of Diversification Begins

A subtle but important detail is that institutions are making room for compliant versions of altcoins.

Goldman Sachs’s latest 13F filing shows that in Q4 2025, while reducing its Bitcoin ETF exposure by 39%, it initiated positions in spot XRP ETF and Solana ETF, with scales of $152 million and $104 million respectively. On February 10 alone, Solana ETF and XRP ETF recorded net inflows of $8.4 million and $3.26 million.

Gate’s 24-hour fund flow data shows that, besides BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP have seen significant activity in large deposits and withdrawals, mainly accumulating in cold wallets rather than internal exchange transfers. This aligns with Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan’s assessment: the true institutional decision cycle involves eight meetings over two years. The money entering now is from clients who started researching these assets as early as 2024.

Market Interpretation: Micro Signals in Price and Holdings Divergence

Returning to Gate’s market data on February 12.

Bitcoin is currently at $67,500, with intraday volatility narrowing to 2.3%, a stark contrast to the often 8% daily swings seen in January. The decline in volatility often signals a transfer of dominance—short-term leveraged traders exit, and spot-based institutions take over pricing power.

In Gate’s BTC/USDT perpetual contract market, funding rates have remained steady at 0.005%–0.01% for a week, with no signs of excessive premiums or panic discounts. This is typical of a market dominated by professional funds: they are not afraid of dips nor overly excited by surges, but are steadily accumulating as planned.

Summary

Over the past five years, the industry has repeatedly shouted “institutional bull.” But this time is different.

When BlackRock includes Bitcoin in a 60/40 portfolio, when Michael Saylor bets his company’s future on digital gold, and when Wells Fargo allows you to use ETF shares as collateral for home purchases—this is no longer a speculative frenzy but a collective silent vote by global asset managers on the future of money.

At Gate, we observe the trading data; but behind the data, the fastest asset paradigm shift in human financial history is accelerating beneath the calm surface of $68,000.