A Third of the World's Biggest Banks Now Work With Bitcoin, According to a New Index From Strategy

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), the world's largest corporate bitcoin holder, published its first index on July 13-14, 2026, measuring how deeply 25 of the world's largest banks and financial institutions are engaged with bitcoin and digital assets. The average score across all 25 organizations came out to 32% — genuinely close to a third.

How It Was Measured

The index scores institutions across five categories: trading, custody, digital-asset products, financing, and corporate participation. The authors explicitly flag a methodology limitation: the rankings show whether a bank's relevant capabilities are publicly visible, but they don't measure customer numbers, transaction volumes, assets under management, revenue, or profitability of that business line.

Who's Leading

• Fidelity — 71%
• BNY (Bank of New York Mellon) — 46%
• Goldman Sachs — 45%
• JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup — 43% each

At the other end of the list are SMBC and Royal Bank of Canada at 13%, Lloyd's at 17%, and MUFG at 18%.

“Adoption of Bitcoin and the related digital asset ecosystem across major banks and financial institutions is accelerating, but still early at 32%.”

— Phong Le, Strategy CEO, index launch, July 13, 2026

Quote source: Bitcoin.com News, July 13, 2026

Why the Number Deserves Some Skepticism

The index's methodology hasn't been independently audited, and Strategy isn't a neutral observer here: its business model is built around corporate bitcoin ownership, and rising institutional recognition of BTC directly benefits its own position. That doesn't mean the 32% figure is inaccurate — but it's worth treating as a directional signal from an interested party rather than independent research, especially given that Strategy itself has had a rough few weeks: the company's market cap recently fell below the value of the bitcoin sitting on its own balance sheet.

What This Means in Practice

Regardless of how precise the exact number is, the list of 25 banks is telling on its own: even institutions publicly cautious about the crypto market — from Bank of America to Deutsche Bank — already show up in the index with a non-zero score. At the same time, federal-level signals are far more guarded — in these same days, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh publicly told Congress the regulator won't rescue the crypto sector in a crisis. Banks' institutional presence in crypto infrastructure keeps growing, but it's growing without a matching willingness from the Fed to serve as a 2008-style backstop.

This material is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. The figures cited are based on an index published by Strategy, a company with a direct interest in growing institutional demand for bitcoin.