Coinbase dominates custody for majority of spot ETFs, says Bitwise

If you want to launch a spot crypto ETF in the US, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to end up calling Coinbase. The exchange serves as custodian for 9 of the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs and 8 of the 9 spot Ethereum ETFs, a level of market dominance that Bitwise has highlighted as a defining feature of the current ETF landscape. That translates to roughly 80-84% of all Bitcoin ETF assets sitting under Coinbase’s watch. We’re talking about approximately $74 billion out of a total $91.7 billion in Bitcoin ETF assets under management. How Coinbase became crypto’s default vault Coinbase has been custodying crypto assets for institutions for over 12 years. When the SEC finally greenlit spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, issuers needed a custodian they could point to with a straight face. One that had regulatory relationships, insurance frameworks, and battle-tested cold storage infrastructure. Coinbase was the obvious pick for most of them. BlackRock’s IBIT, the largest spot Bitcoin ETF by assets, routes its BTC and ETH deposits through Coinbase Prime. The world’s biggest asset manager, with over $10 trillion in total AUM across all products, chose the same custodian as nearly every ot...