How Fidelity and Bank of America Became Indirect Owners of Bitcoin
Fidelity and Bank of America have become indirect owners of Bitcoin (BTC) after accumulating shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) in Q1 of this year.
MSTR is the largest institutional holder of Bitcoin, owning over 140,000 BTC worth more than $4.22 billion.
Both Fidelity and Bank of America purchased tens of millions of dollars worth of MSTR shares, making Bank of America the fourth-largest shareholder of MicroStrategy and Fidelity the ninth-largest.
Bank of America holds a 2.37% stake in MicroStrategy, owning 226,980 MSTR shares worth over $59.53 million as of Q1. The bank made most of its MSTR purchases in the previous quarter, buying 226,506 shares to represent a massive 47,786% growth in ownership on a quarter-over-quarter basis.
Meanwhile, Fidelity has a 1.01% stake in the business intelligence firm, owning 97,134 MSTR shares worth over $25.47 million as of Q1 2023. Fidelity also significantly increased its MSTR holdings last quarter after accumulating 96,800 shares, marking an increase of over 28,982% compared to its Q4 2022 stake in MicroStrategy.
READ MORE: Ethereum Could Hit $10,000 by 2025, Expert Predicts
Fidelity and Bank of America’s move to accumulate MicroStrategy shares may indicate growing institutional interest in Bitcoin and its underlying technology. According to Doctor Profits, a widely followed crypto trader, both Fidelity and Bank of America bought BTC indirectly by accumulating MSTR shares. The purchases took place mostly in Q1 of this year.
Fidelity and Bank of America bought #BTC indirectly while becoming one of the top 10 share owners of Micro Strategy that owns more than several billions worth of Bitcoin.
Most of these share purchases took place in Q1 this year.
Think about it for a minute.
— Doctor Profit 🇨🇭 (@DrProfitCrypto) April 10, 2023
The cryptocurrency market has seen significant volatility recently, with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies experiencing sharp price swings. However, many institutional investors and large financial firms have expressed interest in cryptocurrencies, indicating that the market may continue to grow in the coming years.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading for $30,109, up over 6% in the last 24 hours.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
