Barclays raises IBIT holdings 48% as Citi reports $119M in FBTC

Barclays’ Nov. 6 filing lists three IBIT share positions totaling 3,942,900 shares. That was about 48% more than the roughly 2.66 million shares it reported at the end of June, when they were worth $88.5 million. The share count rose less than the dollar value, which more than doubled. Jonatan Randin, senior market analyst at PrimeXBT, told Cointelegraph that rising fund prices can account for part of the increase in reported holdings. “It’s important to look at the holdings in shares and not just the increase in dollar amount,” he said.

Citi’s filing, submitted two days earlier, shows 1,636,387 FBTC shares worth $118.87 million; its June-quarter table had no corresponding FBTC position. Citi also reported 521,144 IBIT shares worth $24.67 million, up 174,030 shares, or about 50.1%, from June 30. Together, the banks’ IBIT and FBTC shares were valued at $330.19 million at quarter-end, excluding options.

The filings list IBIT calls and puts but do not establish whether the positions relate to customer activity, market making or the banks’ own investments. Barclays reported calls covering 8,479,800 underlying shares and puts covering 8,169,700. Citi reported calls covering 400,000 shares and puts covering 505,000—down from 2.91 million and 1.6 million, respectively, in June. SEC reporting rules require qualifying managers to report long positions without netting short positions; written options are excluded, while qualifying held options are reported separately. The disclosures therefore do not reveal any offsetting trades or provide a complete picture of exposure.

The Sept. 30 figures predate a week of withdrawals from U.S. crypto funds. Bitcoin ETFs lost $1.28 billion from Nov. 2–6, including $1.21 billion from IBIT, which saw net withdrawals each session, according to crypto.news. FBTC ended the week with $93.1 million in net inflows despite losing $199.9 million on Thursday. Ether ETFs lost $365.2 million, bringing combined withdrawals from bitcoin and ether funds to about $1.65 billion. Separately, Deutsche Bank launched crypto custody for paying institutional and corporate clients in Europe on Nov. 11, Reuters reported. Its initial service supports bitcoin, ether, USDC, EURC and EURAU; retail customers are not included.