Key Points
Goldman Sachs sold off a lot of its crypto holdings.
It sold some or all of its positions in Solana, XRP, Ethereum, and Bitcoin.
It bought a stock that gives it exposure to Hyperliquid in the same period as the sales.
- 10 stocks we like better than Goldman Sachs Group ›
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) just gave crypto investors one of the clearest institutional signals of the year, and, somewhat surprisingly, it wasn’t a bullish endorsement of the usual suspects. The bank’s Form 13F from Q1 2026, which discloses positions as of March 31, shows it fully liquidated its holdings in both XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) exchange-traded funds (ETFs), while also slashing its Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) ETF exposure by roughly 70%. It also opened a new position in a digital asset treasury (DAT) company that’s accumulating Hyperliquid (CRYPTO: HYPE), a popular decentralized crypto exchange for trading crypto derivatives.
Goldman’s moves here aren’t random trims. The reshuffling of the roster maps to a changing set of narratives across the crypto sector, wherein yesterday’s institutional darlings like Ethereum, Solana, and XRP are losing favor to emerging protocols with stronger mechanisms for holders to capture value. Let’s dig into what Goldman sold, what it bought, and where the sector might be headed next.
Will AI create the world’s first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an “Indispensable Monopoly” providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »
Image source: Getty Images.
This reshuffle almost looks like an about-face
Just one quarter before the most recent 13F filing, in Q4 of 2025, Goldman Sachs ranked as one of the largest known institutional holders of spot XRP ETFs (exchange-traded funds) in the U.S., with a position worth $154 million. It also held about $108 million in Solana ETFs. By March 31, those positions had been mostly or completely sold off.
Now, its Ethereum ETF allocation is just $114 million, representing a major reduction. Furthermore, its also trimmed its Bitcoin holdings by about 10%, and they’re now valued at roughly $700 million. So it significantly cut or eliminated holdings of crypto majors, which suggests Goldman isn’t very optimistic about their growth.
The far more interesting move was what Goldman added.
The filing disclosed that it purchased 654,630 shares of Hyperliquid Strategies, a crypto treasury company; Goldman’s stake is valued at $3.3 million, so it’s much smaller than the recent cuts. The company, for its part, held about 20 million HYPE coins as of late April, so Goldman now has some fairly direct (and because the company can take out debt to buy the token) exposure to Hyperliquid.
What the Hyperliquid bet could mean about where crypto is going
Let’s keep Goldman’s purchase in context: A $3.3 million position in a Hyperliquid treasury company barely registers as anything at all for a bank managing trillions.
But this move still reveals something about where institutional interest could be heading. If you’ve ever wondered what makes a cryptocurrency valuable, Hyperliquid’s model offers a concrete answer that most other cryptocurrencies do not.
About 99% of all trading fees generated on Hyperliquid’s exchange are used to repurchase its own coins, creating persistent buying pressure on supply that ramps with intensity depending on how much activity is happening on the platform. To date, the protocol has spent more than $1.2 billion on buybacks, so there’s already a bit of a track record for the buyback program working as intended. That direct connection between platform usage and coin scarcity (as well as higher coin prices) is the kind of economic model that traditional financial businesses can underwrite with a measure of confidence, as the core metrics that determine the investment’s performance are transparent and easy to understand, not to mention trending in the right direction. The timing of Goldman’s purchase also coincides with the mid-May launch of the first spot Hyperliquid ETFs, which could put additional buying pressure on the coin’s price.
Nonetheless, risks abound, and it’s obvious why Goldman kept its exposure quite small. Centralized crypto exchanges are pursuing regulatory approval to offer the same types of financial derivatives that Hyperliquid is known for, potentially eroding Hyperliquid’s currently dominant position in decentralized derivatives.
For individual investors, the right move here isn’t to replicate Goldman’s specific allocations. Though there are many reasons it could be a good investment, Hyperliquid is mcuh too risky for everyone.
The bigger point is that institutional capital is likely to become significantly more reluctant to invest in coins where the main way for holders to get a return is via either luck or prayer. Solana, Ethereum, and XRP, for all their many merits, do not offer as direct or aggressive a mechanism linking network utilization to returns for holders as Hyperliquid does. And that’s why Hyperliquid might continue to be an institutional favorite for a good while.
Should you buy stock in Goldman Sachs Group right now?
Before you buy stock in Goldman Sachs Group, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Goldman Sachs Group wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $472,852!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,317,207!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 984% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 210% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.
*Stock Advisor returns as of May 28, 2026.
Alex Carchidi has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, Goldman Sachs Group, Hyperliquid, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
