Dear Bitcoiners,
In this week’s live appearance on Roxom’s State of the Bitcoin Markets show, I discussed price action and classified this cycle as the cycle of Institutional Adoption and maturity, with the main catalyst being the ETF approval.
We have discussed over and over how the main gateways for institutional adoption have been ETFs and treasury companies.
That’s why, at Bitcoin Strategy, we’ve consistently published a quarterly institutional adoption report based on the latest institutional ETF holdings. The data is gathered from SEC 13F filings, which include institutions with over $100M in assets under management (AUM) that are required to report, aka the smart money.
Yesterday was the deadline, and the latest data for institutional ETF holdings in Q2 2026 came in.
In today’s newsletter, we’ll discuss the latest insights from these filings, a proxy for institutional adoption of Bitcoin. Let’s jump right in!
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👉 Key insight: During Q2, Bitcoin’s price declined 14.2%, while institutional holdings increased 7.5%. This bullish divergence shows institutions continued accumulating during Bitcoin’s bottom formation.
Total ETF holdings dropped from 1,297,010 BTC to 1,211,322 BTC, a 6.6% decline, while institutional holdings increased from 498,389 BTC to 535,723 BTC, a 7.5% increase.
👉 Key insight: While total ETF holdings declined, institutions added to their positions, raising the institutional share from 38.4% to 44.2%, a new all-time high!
Below are the top 25 largest institutional Bitcoin ETF holders.
👇 Key insights:
17 of them increased their positions this quarter.
Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase both added over 10k BTC.
Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds increased their position.
Below is a list of new entrants with a first time allocation of 100+ BTC.
What stands out is Ameriprise, a large mainstream US wealth-management and financial-services firm with more than 10,000 financial advisors and about $1.7T in assets under management.
This is another confirmation that Bitcoin has become a mature institutional-grade asset and is finding its way into traditional wealth management by being gradually included by financial advisors. A very positive development.
The other new entrants are mainly hedge funds and investment managers, with Context Capital Management and Compass Rose Asset Management making the largest new allocations at $191M and $122M, respectively. While perhaps less noteworthy names, these are still large new positions and a positive sign of continued institutional adoption.
The number of institutions reporting Bitcoin holdings through their 13F filings dropped from roughly 2,000 in Q1 to nearly 1,900 in Q2, a 6.8% decrease.
This shows that the bear market has still been brutal out there. While overall institutional holdings increased, some institutions were still forced or scared out of their positions.
The institutional data that came in is really above my expectations. Considering the phase of the bear market and price action, I didn’t expect to see such a large increase. Total institutional holdings nearly surpassed the number we saw at the cycle peak.
This confirms that institutions see the current price as an attractive entry level. Together with the recovery from the recent Digital Credit stress test, it increases the chances of recovery.
I hope you appreciate this bullish divergence! As always, I try to provide you with the best data and insights. I’d love to read your comments and thoughts. 👊 🧡
Until next week, 🫡
-Root
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