Mainstream adoption versus mainstream absorption
If the past couple of weeks are any indication, Bitcoin isn’t being adopted, it's getting absorbed. Institutions are embracing exposure, not ideology.
Between November 24 and Dec 2, a series of seemingly small moves meshed into place like interlocking gears.
- JPMorgan filed to offer leveraged notes tied to BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF.
- Nasdaq pushed to raise options limits on that same ETF to levels typically reserved for mega-cap tech.
- And Vanguard, long the crypto skeptic, quietly opened its brokerage gates to bitcoin and ether exposure across a swath of third-party products.
Each decision landed as a minor tweak, a policy change, or a filing. But together, they point to something bigger: a shift in how institutional capital absorbs bitcoin.
Daniel McGlynn
Vanguard changes its stance of bitcoin
The most symbolic of the three moves came from one of finance's most conservative players. Vanguard, the $11 trillion low-cost titan whose brand is built on restraint, reversed its internal prohibition on crypto products. Customers can now buy bitcoin and other crypto ETFs.
This is a significant shift because Vanguard doesn’t move fast, or often. When it does, it’s usually to reflect a new consensus. The world’s most anti-hype manager couldn’t keep pretending clients wouldn’t ask for this.
IBIT’s evolution into an options market
Bitcoin’s ETF era was supposed to be about access and about simplicity. But what’s coming into view is something more complex, and more familiar to the institutions getting involved.
On Nov. 26, Nasdaq International Securities Exchange filed to quadruple the position limits on IBIT options, from 250,000 to 1 million contracts. That would place BlackRock’s ETF in the same class as Apple and Nvidia when it comes to trading infrastructure.
This means that bitcoin is becoming a full-spectrum derivatives platform. Institutions want hedges, spreads, and volatility surfaces they can model. The same logic that makes oil and rates tradable applies here too: make it predictable enough to be risky in familiar ways.
JPMorgan turns risk into a product
Of the big three moves, JPMorgan’s was the most expected. The bank filed to offer structured notes tied to IBIT, including leveraged variants. This is a new kind of signal that banks are now willing to create bitcoin-linked products that sit squarely within their fee and compliance frameworks.
If the first wave of bitcoin adoption was self-directed, the next wave will be intermediated. That shift becomes official in early January, when Bank of America will allow advisors across Merrill, Merrill Edge, and its Private Bank to recommend crypto-linked ETFs to clients. Target allocations range from 1% to 4%, tailored to risk tolerance.
It reflects a deeper pivot: crypto is no longer being offered as rebellion, but as exposure. It fits into models, tolerances, and portfolio frameworks. Once advisors can check a compliance box and assign a ticker, the flows can start.
Daniel McGlynn
The sovereign signal, cautiously read
In parallel with the infrastructure wave, a more symbolic trend is also playing out: large sovereign buyers are building stakes.
Filings show that Abu Dhabi’s investment arm increased its holdings in IBIT from 2.4 million shares to nearly 8 million between June and September 2025. BlackRock’s Larry Fink has said sovereign wealth funds were buyers during the autumn drawdown, though that’s anecdotal rather than comprehensive.
This has sparked a Reddit-coined phrase: “retail capitulation, sovereign accumulation.” The idea is tempting: the moment mom-and-pop gives up, Abu Dhabi steps in.
It works as a story because of its simplicity, but the data’s incomplete. What’s clear is that institutions prefer ETF wrappers over raw asset custody, and they’re building those positions even as retail activity flattens. Whether that’s strategic accumulation or just opportunistic rebalancing is harder to prove.
Daniel McGlynn
What kind of institutionalization is this?
The bitcoin narrative spent a decade talking about inevitability. That institutions would adopt, banks would cave, and resistance would fall.
But, as the adoption versus absorption model evolves, there is an important Open Money component to all of this.
Institutions didn’t accept self-custody, or censorship resistance, or bearer assets. They built fee ladders, derivatives markets, and wrappers. What they’re adopting isn’t the philosophy. It’s the volatility, the demand, and the tradability.
Bitcoin’s presence in regulated markets has never been higher. But the focus is shifting toward advisors, platforms, and indexes. The tools are improving, but the shape of exposure is changing.
The days of "not your keys, not your coins" feel numbered.