Institutional Giants Add Positions in Key Crypto-Related Stocks Amid Bear Market

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Wenser (@wenser 2010 )

Recently, Amundi, Europe’s largest asset management company with $2.9 trillion in assets under management, disclosed that it increased its stake in Strategy shares by 148%, now holding 1.32 million shares valued at $127.7 million. Looking at recent data, despite BTC’s ongoing volatility and lackluster performance among crypto-related stocks, several institutions have chosen to increase their positions against the trend, anticipating future market recovery and profit generation.

Today, claims about the "collapse of the DAT model" and the "shattering of institutional crypto faith" are rampant, but the SEC’s quarterly mandatory 13F filings reveal a different truth—investment institutions managing assets in the hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars are quietly increasing their positions at their own pace. Odaily Planet Daily will briefly outline the relevant assets and some representative investment institutions in this article.

MSTR has the most solid data among this round of institutional buying, with buyers including asset management firms, major banks, public funds, and other institutions.

The position of approximately 1.32 million shares in Amundi mentioned at the beginning of the article was not the result of continuous one-sided buying; it reduced its Strategy stock position by nearly 90% in Q1 this year, and the rebalancing in Q2 was a recovery from a low base of around 530,000 shares, given that the cryptocurrency market’s performance in Q1 was utterly dismal, prompting even major asset managers to adjust their strategies accordingly.

Asset management giant Vanguard announced on July 20 that its VOE fund increased its holdings by 83,093 shares of MSTR, valued at $8.16 million, bringing its total stake to 2.12 million shares worth $209 million; on July 27, its VTSAX fund increased its holdings by 529,100 shares of MSTR, valued at $50 million, raising its total stake to 10.5 million shares worth $994 million.

The world's fourth-largest asset manager, State Street Corporation, recently disclosed that it increased its stake in MSTR by 506,635 shares, amounting to approximately $51 million, bringing its total holdings to 7.52 million shares with a value of about $758 million, a 7.2% increase in position size.

Capital Group, the world’s largest active asset manager with $3.3 trillion in assets under management, disclosed in July an increase of 80,240 shares of MSTR, valued at $7.78 million, raising its total holding to 1.66 million shares worth $161.39 million.

The Netherlands' fifth-largest asset manager, Robeco, disclosed in July that its MSTR position increased by 11%, bringing its total holdings to 133,755 shares, valued at $13.1 million.

South Korean asset management firms are also among the major buyers of MSTR. Mirae Asset Global Investments, South Korea’s second-largest asset manager with $845 billion in assets under management, disclosed in July that it increased its stake by 25,573 MSTR shares, valued at $2.42 million, raising its total holding to 135,951 shares worth $12.87 million.

The increased holdings by banks and public funds, apart from asset management institutions, are also worth noting.

Among major banks, Sweden’s second-largest bank, Svenska Handelsbanken AB, previously increased its holdings by 23,829 shares of MSTR, valued at $2.21 million, bringing its total stake to 106,522 shares worth $9.92 million; Sweden’s third-largest bank, Swedbank AB, previously increased its holdings by 8,278 shares of Strategy, bringing its total stake to 90,590 shares worth $8.81 million; Bank of New York Mellon recently disclosed an increase of 14,630 shares of Strategy, valued at $1.45 million, raising its total holdings to 1.02 million shares worth $102.4 million; National Bank of Canada increased its MSTR holdings to 1.2 million shares, nearly doubling its position, with a total value of $116 million; Citibank increased its holdings by 238,538 shares, bringing its total stake value to $905 million; European banks such as Nordic banking giant Nordea and Austrian banking giant Raiffeisen Bank International also increased their MSTR holdings by amounts ranging from hundreds of thousands to over a million dollars.

On the public fund side, Michigan’s retirement system, with assets under management exceeding $10 billion, recently disclosed an increase in its MSTR position from approximately 5,800 shares to 14,000 shares, a 141% increase, valued at around $1.22 million; the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System increased its MSTR holdings to 21,300 shares, worth $2.13 million; the New Jersey Police and Firemen’s Retirement System recently raised its MSTR stake to 49,055 shares, valued at $4.66 million.

Although the absolute amount of this position increase is modest, the signal from public pension funds, which prioritize fiduciary responsibility, being willing to expand their BTC exposure is more significant than the capital itself.

As the leading stock in the Ethereum treasury, BMNR's market performance has been underwhelming.

After attracting over $100 million in additional investments from quantitative funds Citadel Advisors and Susquehanna International in the first quarter, the primary buyers in Q2 shifted toward major asset management firms and index funds.

BlackRock is currently the largest institutional shareholder of BMNR, holding 27,297,100 shares as of the end of June this year;

As of the end of Q2, State Street Corp. held 8.74 million shares of BMNR, strongly entering the top 10 shareholders.

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest held 5.7 million shares by the end of Q2, but sold approximately 121,000 shares of Bitmine in late July, worth $2 million.

The most noteworthy aspect of Q2 is Bitmine's entry into the Russell Index, which triggered mandatory large-scale purchases by passive index funds and ETFs managed by major institutions; at this point, it is difficult to view this as "active buying decisions made by asset management giants."

On the CRCL line, both types of funds have moved.

California's public pension fund, CalPERS, established a new position in Circle during Q2, purchasing 139,507 shares with an investment of approximately $13.31 million, in the tens of millions of dollars range—conservative in approach but clearly intentional.

In Q1, numerous funds also made investments. According to data disclosed over the past quarter: Southpoint Capital Advisors previously increased its position by 175%, acquiring approximately 2.1 million shares with a market value of about $200 million; Jane Street increased its position by more than tenfold, acquiring approximately 1.94 million shares with a market value of about $185 million; Morgan Stanley increased its position by 241%, acquiring approximately 3.52 million shares with a market value of about $336 million.

As we enter Q2, despite sluggish progress on the CLARITY bill, more institutions are choosing to buy into Circle’s “crypto banking and payments giant” narrative.

The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund spent $131.8 million to purchase 2,105,378 shares;

The Swiss National Bank holds approximately 418,900 shares, valued at around $26.23 million;

Korea Investment Corp. also purchased 65,443 shares, valued at approximately $4.1 million;

BlackRock even directly increased its stake by 65.35%, raising its total holding to 8.4 million shares.

ARK Invest has also been actively trading this asset; its most recent transaction was on August 7, when its ARKK fund purchased 313,764 shares of Circle stock at $66.67 per share, totaling approximately $20.92 million. Prior data shows that as of July 31, Circle stock accounted for 3.82% of the ARK Innovation ETF’s top ten holdings, ranking 8th.

The largest institutional shareholder of COIN is currently Vanguard, with holdings consistently maintained at tens of millions of shares and a market value in the billions of dollars. The source of this position is relatively clear: COIN has been included in major indices such as the S&P 500, and Vanguard’s index funds and ETFs passively buy the stock according to its weight, with the size of the position fluctuating in line with the free-float market cap—this does not reflect any active judgment by fund managers that “now is the time to increase positions.”

BlackRock and State Street have consistently ranked among the top shareholders of COIN, following a logic similar to Vanguard. True active positioning increases are currently more driven by sector rotation within thematic funds like ARK, rather than new purchases by traditional large asset managers.

Ark Invest's strategy is to buy COIN on dips and occasionally engage in swing trading; its most recent transaction occurred on August 7, when it spent approximately $9.16 million to purchase 59,668 shares of Coinbase stock at $153.60 per share. As of July 31, Coinbase stock accounted for 4.54% of the Ark Innovation ETF’s top ten holdings, ranking fifth.

HOOD's institutional ownership has exceeded 93%, making it the most institutionalized asset in this group.

Q1 2024 13F data shows that the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its position by 19.3%, raising its holdings to 74,000 shares, with a market value of approximately $5.14 million; Empowered Funds increased its position by 46.7%, holding about 50,000 shares. While these individual amounts are not large, what’s more telling is the breadth—numerous small and mid-sized pension funds and bank-affiliated asset managers are simultaneously making modest increases, indicating that HOOD has entered the standard allocation pool for these conservative investors, rather than being treated as an alternative investment requiring special approval.

ARK also increased its position in HOOD by approximately 1.19 million shares in Q1. According to reliable data, as of July 31, Robinhood stock accounted for 3.54% of the ARK Innovation ETF’s top ten holdings, ranking 9th.

For Block stock, the most noteworthy development is BlackRock’s Q2 activity—according to the latest disclosure, BlackRock holds approximately 41,573,031 shares of Block stock, valued at around $3.1596 billion; compared to Q1, it slightly reduced its position by 665,843 shares.

Cathie Wood has shown a particular inclination toward this stock: transaction records from mid-July show that ARK purchased approximately 72,000 shares of Block, valued at around $5.63 million; on August 6, Ark Invest disclosed again the purchase of 267,676 shares of Block stock, worth approximately $21 million. Notably, Ark Invest adjusts its position by selling during market downturns, demonstrating flexible trading strategies.

BLSH has not been listed for long, and institutional accumulation has largely occurred over the last two quarters.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest was one of the earliest and most vocal buyers, building a position exceeding $160 million in Q1.

MFS and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank each established new positions of nearly $100 million, aligning with ARK's direction.

Based on the above information, most investment institutions have adopted an investment strategy combining "leading stocks + a few optional choices" to manage risk, ensure stable returns, and meet passive holding requirements.

The pattern that can be summarized is:

1. Active position adding with deliberate judgment is concentrated in thematic funds like ARK and certain hedge funds, which frequently adjust their positions, have clear directional strategies, and are willing to continue buying during downturns.
2. Industry giants like Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street appear on the shareholder lists of nearly every underlying asset, but they typically buy passively in line with index weights—it shouldn't be simplistically interpreted as "institutions bullish."
3. Although the individual transaction amounts by pension funds are modest, their reach is expanding—public funds from Michigan, Illinois, and California have nearly simultaneously appeared on lists of institutions increasing their allocations to crypto stocks, indicating that crypto assets are increasingly being accepted by institutions with extremely low risk tolerance and conservative investment styles as viable allocation targets.

For retail investors, 13F filings have a 45-day disclosure delay, and institutional positions can shift rapidly and flexibly; previous holdings can only serve as a reference for investment decisions, not as direct signals to copy trades—especially with someone as agile and frequently trading as Cathie Wood.

More worth considering is the signal conveyed by the combined movements of institutional funds—when it comes to identifying market bottoms and evaluating sector options, institutions demonstrate more solid and acute judgment than retail investors. (If there are errors, omissions, or more detailed versions of the data, readers are welcome to provide feedback.)