JPMorgan Chase held roughly $981 million in crypto-linked stocks and funds as of September 30, according to a regulatory 13F filing. This total includes holdings in spot Bitcoin ETFs, Coinbase, and Michael Saylor’s Strategy. The bank’s position likely exceeds $1 billion when counting its stakes in Robinhood and Bitcoin miners like Core Scientific and Hut 8.
Growing institutional positions
The bank increased its stake in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT, by 9.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan reported 11,408,930 shares in IBIT, which carries a value of about $540 million. Its total exposure to spot Bitcoin ETFs reached around $549 million after adding smaller positions in Grayscale and Bitwise funds.
| Asset Type | Holding Detail | Value |
|---|---|---|
| BlackRock IBIT | 11,408,930 shares | $540 million |
| Strategy | 848,932 shares | $131.3 million |
| Coinbase | Core holding | $301 million |
JPMorgan also raised its Strategy stake 36% to 848,932 shares from 624,387 shares at the end of June. This position grew to $131.3 million from $57.9 million in the previous quarter. These figures reflect both the added shares and a rise in the stock price.
Market cooling and CEO skepticism
The September snapshot predates a period where spot Bitcoin ETFs lost more than $1.4 billion in five days. This decline happened as investors cut risk, leaving the institutional appetite captured in the filing looking much stronger than current market conditions. Bitcoin traded near $155 per Strategy share at quarter-end but now trades below $69,000. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, previously called Bitcoin "worthless" and compared crypto to a "fraud." Banks often hold these positions to hedge or facilitate client trades rather than to wager on price.
