During the crypto bear market, which crypto-related stocks are institutional giants adding to their positions?

Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Wenser (@wenser 2010 )

Recently, Amundi, France's largest asset management company with €2.9 trillion in assets under management, disclosed an increase of 148% in its Strategy share position, now holding 1.32 million shares valued at $127.7 million. Looking back at recent data, despite Bitcoin's ongoing volatility and lackluster price performance across crypto-related stocks, a number of institutions have chosen to increase their positions against the trend, waiting for market rebounds to generate returns.

Now, narratives about the "bankruptcy of the DAT model" and "collapse of institutional crypto conviction" are making the rounds, but the 13F filings that the U.S. SEC mandates quarterly reveal the truth behind the time lag—a group of investment institutions managing hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars in assets are quietly building positions at their own pace. Odaily Planet Daily will provide a brief overview of the relevant targets and some representative investment institutions in this article.

Strategy (MSTR): Asset Management Giants and Public Funds Replenish Positions

MSTR is the stock with the most solid institutional accumulation data this cycle, with buyers spanning asset managers, major banks, public funds, and other institutions.

The roughly 1.32 million share position held by Amundi, mentioned at the start of the article, is not the result of sustained one-way buying. The firm had slashed its Strategy stock position by nearly 90% in Q1 of this year, and the Q2 increase was a replenishment from a low base of approximately 530,000 shares. After all, the crypto market's Q1 performance was nothing short of dismal, and even asset management giants need to read the room when trading.

Asset management giant Vanguard's VOE fund previously announced on July 20 an increase of 83,093 shares of MSTR, valued at $8.16 million, bringing its position to 2.12 million shares worth $209 million. On July 27, its VTSAX fund added 529,100 shares of MSTR stock, valued at $50 million, increasing its position to 10.5 million shares worth $994 million.

State Street Corporation, the world's fourth-largest asset manager, recently disclosed an increase of 506,635 shares of MSTR, involving approximately $51 million, bringing its total holdings to 7.52 million shares valued at approximately $758 million, an increase of 7.2% in position size.

Capital Group, the world's largest actively managed fund company with $3.3 trillion in AUM, had its Growth ETF (CGGR) disclose in July an increase of 80,240 shares of MSTR, valued at $7.78 million, bringing its position to 1.66 million shares worth $161.39 million.

Dutch asset manager Robeco, the fifth largest in the Netherlands, disclosed in July that its MSTR position increased by 11%, reaching a total of 133,755 shares valued at $13.1 million.

Korean asset managers are also among the key buyers of MSTR. Mirae Asset Global Investments, South Korea's second-largest asset manager with $845 billion in AUM, disclosed in July an increase of 25,573 shares of MSTR, valued at $2.42 million, bringing its position to 135,951 shares worth $12.87 million.

Beyond asset managers, bank and public fund accumulation is also worth noting.

Among major banks, Sweden's second-largest bank, Svenska Handelsbanken AB, with assets of $132.5 billion, previously increased its position by 23,829 shares of MSTR, valued at $2.21 million, bringing total holdings to 106,522 shares worth $9.92 million. Sweden's third-largest bank, Swedbank AB, previously increased its Strategy stock position by 8,278 shares, reaching 90,590 shares valued at $8.81 million. BNY Mellon recently disclosed an increase of 14,630 shares of Strategy stock, valued at $1.45 million, raising its total position 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, valued at $116 million. Citibank added 238,538 shares, bringing its position value to $90.5 million. Nordic banking giant Nordea, Austrian banking giant Raiffeisen Bank International, and other European banks also increased their MSTR holdings by amounts ranging from hundreds of thousands to over a million dollars.

On the public fund front, the Michigan retirement system, with over $100 billion in assets under management, recently disclosed its MSTR position increased from approximately 5,800 shares to 14,000 shares, a 141% increase, with a market value of approximately $1.22 million. The Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its MSTR holdings to 21,300 shares, valued at $2.13 million. The New Jersey Police and Firemen's Retirement System recently increased its MSTR position to 49,055 shares, valued at $4.66 million.

While the absolute amounts of the above position increases are not large, the willingness of these public pension funds—which prioritize fiduciary responsibility above all else—to expand their exposure to BTC assets carries a signal that outweighs the capital itself.

Bitmine (BMNR): From Hedge Funds to Asset Management Giants Buying In

As the leading Ethereum treasury stock, BMNR's market performance has been less than satisfactory.

After attracting combined investments of over $100 million from Citadel Advisors and Susquehanna International in Q1, the Q2 buying baton shifted primarily to mainstream asset management giants and index funds.

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

State Street Corp. held 8.74 million shares of BMNR at the end of Q2, firmly entering the top 10 shareholder list.

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

The most noteworthy development in Q2 was Bitmine's inclusion in the Russell indices, which triggered mandatory large-scale buying by passive index funds and ETFs run by numerous giants. At present, this can hardly be interpreted as "asset management giants making active buy decisions based on their own judgment."

Circle (CRCL): Public Funds, Asset Management Giants, International Banks, and Cathie Wood All Making Moves

On the CRCL front, both types of capital have been active.

California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) established a new position in Circle during Q2, purchasing a total of 139,507 shares with an investment of approximately $13.31 million. The scale is in the tens of millions of dollars, leaning conservative in approach but clear in intent.

Many funds were also positioning in Q1. According to data disclosed in the most recent quarter: Southpoint Capital Advisors previously increased its position by 175%, holding approximately 2.1 million shares valued at roughly $200 million; Jane Street increased its position more than tenfold to approximately 1.94 million shares valued at roughly $185 million; Morgan Stanley increased its position by 241% to approximately 3.52 million shares valued at roughly $336 million.

Entering Q2, despite the lack of progress on the CLARITY Act, more institutions chose to buy into Circle's "crypto banking and payments giant" narrative.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund spent $131.8 million to purchase 2,105,378 shares.

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

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

BlackRock even directly increased its position by 65.35%, bringing its total holdings to 8.4 million shares.

ARK Invest has also been highly active with this target. Its most recent transaction was on August 7, when it purchased 313,764 shares of Circle stock through its ARKK fund, valued at approximately $20.92 million based on a price of $66.67 per share. Earlier data showed that as of July 31, ARK Innovation ETF's top 10 holdings included 3.82% in Circle stock, ranking 8th.

Coinbase (COIN): Vanguard's Passive Buying, Ark Invest's Buy-the-Dip and Swing Trading

COIN's largest institutional shareholder is currently Vanguard, with positions consistently maintained at tens of millions of shares and market values in the billions of dollars. The source of this position is fairly clear: COIN has been included in major indices like the S&P 500, and Vanguard's index funds and ETFs buy passively according to weight, with position sizes tracking float market capitalization—not reflecting active fund manager decisions to "add positions now."

BlackRock and State Street consistently rank near the top of COIN's shareholder list, following similar logic to Vanguard. The additions that genuinely reflect active judgment currently come more from sector rotation within thematic funds like ARK, rather than new purchases from traditional large asset managers.

Ark Invest's approach has been to buy COIN on dips with occasional swing trades. Its most recent transaction occurred on August 7, spending approximately $9.16 million to purchase 59,668 shares of Coinbase stock at $153.60 per share. As of July 31, ARK Innovation ETF's top 10 holdings included 4.54% in Coinbase stock, ranking 5th.

Robinhood (HOOD): Pension Funds Adding in Small Increments, Institutional Ownership Exceeds 90%

HOOD's institutional ownership ratio has exceeded 93%, making it the most institutionally dominated stock among this group of targets.

Q1 13F data from this year 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 approximately 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 regular allocation pool for such conservative capital, rather than being treated as a special alternative asset requiring special approval.

ARK also increased its HOOD position by approximately 1.19 million shares in Q1. According to reliable data, as of July 31, ARK Innovation ETF's top 10 holdings also included 3.54% in Robinhood stock, ranking 9th.

Block (XYZ): BlackRock Trims Slightly in Q2, Cathie Wood Builds Positions with Swing Trades

Regarding Block stock, the most notable development is BlackRock's Q2 action—according to the latest disclosure, BlackRock holds approximately 41,573,031 shares of Block stock, valued at approximately $3.1596 billion. Compared to Q1, it actually trimmed 665,843 shares of Block stock.

Cathie Wood, meanwhile, has shown a distinctive inclination toward this stock. Trading records from mid-July show that ARK purchased approximately 72,000 shares of Block stock, valued at approximately $5.63 million. On August 6, Ark Invest again disclosed the purchase of 267,676 shares of Block stock, valued at approximately $21 million. It's worth noting that Ark Invest will appropriately reduce positions when prices decline, demonstrating flexible trading tactics.

Bullish (BLSH): Cathie Wood Leads, Asset Managers Follow

BLSH has only been publicly listed for a short time, with institutional positioning mostly concentrated in the last two quarters.

Cathie Wood's ARK Invest was among the earliest and most decisive buyers, establishing a position exceeding $160 million in Q1.

Massachusetts Financial Services (MFS) and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank also each established positions of nearly $100 million, with direction aligned with ARK.

Limited Options in the Sector—Just Pick the Leaders

Synthesizing the above information, most