BNY Mellon increases Strive stake 28% to $6.97 million in third quarter

Bank of New York Mellon's November 5 Form 13F shows a 28% third-quarter increase in Strive (ASST) holdings. BNY held 237,100 shares with a September 30 valuation of $6.97 million. The share count increased by 51,544 from the 185,556 shares disclosed for June 30, when the position was worth about $2.02 million. The filings imply an ASST share price increase from $10.91 on June 30 to $29.41 on September 30. Higher share prices therefore accounted for most of the gain, with the position's value more than tripling despite a 28% increase in shares.

A Form 13F records holdings at a particular date rather than individual trades. BNY's combination report consolidates group holdings, so the Strive position can encompass client, fund and discretionary investments rather than one proprietary investment. BNY may have altered the position after September 30. BNY oversaw $63.4 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration as of September 30. BNY also had $2.2 trillion in assets under management on that date.

The same filing lists BNY's Strategy (MSTR) position at 1,056,230 shares worth $161.7 million, substantially larger than the Strive position. BNY also disclosed 162,072 shares in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), valued at $7.67 million. BNY's IBIT share count nearly doubled from 85,282 on June 30, leaving the position roughly comparable in value to the Strive holding.

Institutional managers exercising investment discretion over at least $100 million in 13F securities must disclose holdings within 45 days of quarter-end. The disclosure window ended on Saturday, November 14, moving the deadline to Monday, November 16. JPMorgan Chase submitted a third-quarter 13F on Thursday. Wells Fargo, Millennium Management and Schonfeld Strategic Advisors had no filings visible on the SEC's EDGAR system as of Thursday morning. Any bitcoin ETF or bitcoin treasury-stock holdings reported by those remaining large managers were therefore not yet public. BNY submitted the November 5 filing more than a week before the deadline and earlier than most managers.

Barclays' November 6 filing disclosed 3,942,900 IBIT shares worth $186.7 million on September 30, a 48% share-count increase from 2,658,147 three months earlier. Citigroup's November 4 filing disclosed 521,144 IBIT shares valued at $24.7 million, compared with 347,114 shares on June 30. Citigroup also disclosed a new holding of 1,636,387 shares in Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), worth $118.9 million. Citigroup's June 30 filing contained no FBTC position. These disclosures can combine client, managed and trading-book holdings, so the positions do not establish that the banks invested the banks' own capital in bitcoin or bitcoin treasury stocks.

A recent 8-K showed that Strive held 43,153 bitcoin after purchasing 29 coins during the week through November 6. The total places Strive among the larger publicly traded bitcoin treasury companies after Strategy. Amundi, Europe's largest asset manager, increased the asset manager's Strategy stake by 44% during the same quarter. Traditional asset managers continued adding bitcoin-linked investments while the spot market weakened into the fall. Monday's outstanding filings will reveal whether other large managers increased or reduced bitcoin treasury-stock positions after a quarter of strong ASST gains.