The National Bank of Canada just made its feelings about Bitcoin pretty clear, even if it didn’t buy a single satoshi. The bank more than doubled its equity position in Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) to 1.2 million shares, a stake now worth approximately $116 million.
Strategy Inc., the company formerly known as MicroStrategy, has become the go-to vehicle for institutions that want Bitcoin exposure without the operational headaches of actually holding Bitcoin. Under Executive Chairman Michael Saylor’s leadership, Strategy has aggressively accumulated Bitcoin on its balance sheet, turning itself from a middling enterprise software company into something closer to a publicly traded Bitcoin fund.
The $116 million position tells an interesting story about timing and conviction. Institutional holdings in MSTR tend to shift meaningfully across quarterly 13F filings, and the National Bank of Canada’s decision to more than double its share count suggests growing confidence in Strategy’s Bitcoin accumulation thesis. It’s worth noting that earlier disclosures from late 2025 showed the bank holding an even larger position of approximately 1.47 million MSTR shares, valued at nearly $273 million at the time.
The National Bank of Canada is the sixth-largest commercial bank in Canada by assets. Canadian financial institutions have shown a pattern of using Strategy shares as a Bitcoin proxy, adapting their exposure quarter by quarter as market conditions evolve.
Strategy has leaned into this dynamic. The company has used debt issuances, convertible notes, and equity offerings to fund its Bitcoin purchases, creating a feedback loop where rising Bitcoin prices boost the stock, which in turn allows more Bitcoin purchases. For institutional investors, this creates a different risk profile than holding Bitcoin directly, with added layers of corporate execution risk, balance sheet leverage, and management decisions, alongside the comfort of investing through a NASDAQ-listed equity with audited financials and SEC oversight.