America’s oldest bank raises stake at MicroStrategy

By TheStreet Roundtable

12 days ago

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Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK) just revamped their confidence on Michael Saylor's Bitcoin (BTC) giant.

The oldest bank of the United States raised its stake in Strategy Inc (NASDAQ: MSTR) in the first quarter of 2026 to almost a milllion shares.

The revelation came right after Strategy announced its first-quarter earnings.

Wall Street holds on to Strategy

Being the largest publicly traded Bitcoin holding company is not easy.

In the first quarter of 2026, Bitcoin swung through some new lows, dropping as low as $62,000 in the first week of February. Geopolitical uncertainty, rising oil prices and general investor anxiety weighed on crypto and the companies involved with crypto.

Strategy posted over $14 billion in paper losses in the quarter, resulting in a sharp net loss of $12.54 billion.

What was more shocking was Saylor announcing that he was ready to sell some Bitcoin to fund dividends, retire convertible debt, or grow its dollar reserves, whichever move delivers the most Bitcoin per share on any given day.

Analysts, including Cannacord, Clear Street and BTIG, set new price targets right after the earnings went live.

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BNY Mellon joins the fray

BNY Mellon added 101,810 shares of Strategy in the first quarter of 2026, spending approximately $18.7 million at a reference price of around $183.50 per share, according to the company's 13F filing with the SEC for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.

The purchase brings BNY Mellon's total position to 1,014,993 shares across 12 separate custody and discretionary mandates, with an aggregate market value of roughly $187.2 million.

The bank held an estimated 913,183 shares as of December 31, 2025, making the first quarter addition a 11.1% increase in its position quarter-over-quarter.

The filing also shows BNY Mellon holds two Strategy convertible note positions, $249,831 in one tranche and $297,300 in another, bringing total exposure, including notes, to approximately $127.2 million at cost.

Why Wall Street is buying Strategy

Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, has effectively become the largest listed Bitcoin treasury vehicle, holding around 818,334 BTC worth approximately $66.6 billion as of May 7.

Each share functions as a leveraged claim on Bitcoin price moves, a structure that has attracted a growing roster of institutional investors seeking BTC exposure without holding coins directly.

BNY Mellon is not alone. Goldman Sachs boosted its Strategy stake by 237,874 shares to 2,330,142 shares.

BNY Mellon oversees approximately $2.1 trillion in assets under management and $45 trillion in assets under custody. Although this makes the $187.2 million Strategy position a small one, it is still a deliberate slice of a much larger portfolio.