Swiss National Bank increases position in Bitcoin share MicroStrategy

In the second quarter, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) once again invested in the "Bitcoin share" MicroStrategy, increasing its position by almost 60%. As of June 30, the central bank held 466,000 shares worth the equivalent of 63 million US dollars. This is according to a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SNB thus held around 0.24 percent of the software company, which now holds a total of 226,500 Bitcoin. This means that the central bank's portfolio indirectly contains around 540 Bitcoin. Despite the efforts of a popular initiative to oblige the SNB to buy Bitcoin, the Swiss central bank does not yet hold the asset directly.

In total, SNB holds almost 2,500 different shares and the MicroStrategy position accounted for just 0.0441% of the broadly diversified portfolio at the time of reporting. As part of a diversified equity investment, it is now the norm to buy MicroStrategy shares ($MSTR).

Norges Bank, Norway's central bank, also bought more than one million shares in $MSTR last year on behalf of the well-known Norwegian state fund. As at June 30 of this year, the broadly diversified fund held almost 220 million US dollars in the "Bitcoin share".

Since June 1 of this year, $MSTR has also been part of the well-known MSCI World index, which tracks around 1,500 major companies from the industrialized nations. However, the car manufacturer Tesla has been a public limited company that holds Bitcoin itself and is part of major indices for several years. As a result, investors have already had exposure to Bitcoin for some time, albeit only a negligible one, when they buy ETFs that track the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 or MSCI World share indices, among others.

If MicroStrategy's success story - which is directly linked to the performance of Bitcoin - continues, the stock is likely to be included in the S&P 500 sooner or later. This should allow additional capital to flow into the stock via ETF investors, which could make it easier for the company to further expand its BTC holdings through capital increases. The company, founded by Michael Saylor, already meets requirements such as a high enough market capitalization and sufficient liquidity in the share to become part of the most relevant US stock index.

More exciting than large institutional investors, who are probably only investing in MicroStrategy as part of a neutral diversification strategy, will be to see which investors take up the Bitcoin spot ETFs. In the US, two state pension funds already hold the investment products, which were approved in the US in January - another has already announced its purchase.

An active investment in a Bitcoin ETF signals that Bitcoin has further established itself as an asset class and that the asset itself is worth a separate investment. In any case, Bitcoin is on its way to taking up more and more space in the traditional financial system. MicroStrategy's shares and Bitcoin ETFs in particular are fundamentally popular vehicles for participating in the success of the asset class via the established structures of Wall Street - even if investors cannot benefit from the self-custody of Bitcoin.