Major banks have reached just 32% adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) and its broader ecosystem, an early but accelerating pace, according to a new index from Michael Saylor's Strategy.
Key Points
- Strategy's Bitcoin Banking Adoption Index scores 25 major institutions at 32% overall.
- Fidelity leads the ranking at 71%, while Japan's SMBC and the Royal Bank of Canada trail near 13%.
- Strategy has not released the scoring methodology, leaving the figures on its own assessment.
Bitcoin Index Ranks Banks
Strategy chief executive Phong Le first posted the Bitcoin Banking Adoption Index on Jul. 13, grading 25 of the world's largest financial firms on their engagement with the asset, and Saylor amplified the post hours later. The scorecard spans trading, custody, stablecoins, tokenization, margin and leadership, using filled and empty circles to mark five levels of integration from none to full. Fidelity tops the list by a wide margin.
The custody specialist leads the field at 71%, reflecting an eight-year head start that dates to its 2018 launch of an institutional custody arm and a spot Bitcoin fund. BNY Mellon follows at 46%, with Goldman Sachs close behind at 45%.
The gap widens sharply by geography.
JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup each land near 43%, leaving the biggest U.S. lenders bunched in the middle of the pack rather than out front.
European names such as Banco Santander and Société Générale sit lower, clustered around the 35% mark. Japan's SMBC and the Royal Bank of Canada trail the field at just 13%.
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Saylor Bets On Bitcoin Bank
Because Strategy has not published its criteria or data sources, the scores currently rest on the company's own read of public information as of mid-month. Le said the methodology and future revisions would follow, and invited banks to flag corrections, though early replies ran skeptical, with one asking whether a Bitcoin Ponzi Index might come next.
Saylor is not a neutral scorekeeper. His firm holds 843,775 Bitcoin, the largest corporate treasury of the asset, so every bank that deepens its integration lifts the liquidity and legitimacy behind that bet.
The index leans hardest on credit, where most lenders still favor exchange-traded funds over physical coins as collateral, a gap Saylor blames partly on rating agencies that decline to treat Bitcoin as sound backing.
The scorecard caps a turbulent stretch for Strategy, which recently sold 4.8 million shares to lift its cash reserve to $3 billion even as its stock slid about 40% this year.
Saylor has argued for months that thin banking acceptance stands between his firm and its goal of becoming the world's first Bitcoin bank.
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