Strategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy) continues to set trends in the crypto industry, but now not only through its own Bitcoin purchases. The corporation's analysts have launched a new tool — the Bitcoin Banking Adoption Index. This metric visually demonstrates how deeply the world's largest financial institutions have integrated solutions for the first cryptocurrency.
The current index value is 32%. This means that the banking sector has only mastered a third of the potential embedded in the calculation methodology. The assessment was conducted across the 25 largest financial institutions in the world, and the results were extremely uneven.
How the index works and who leads
The index evaluates banks across four key areas: trading and custody services, product range (including spot Bitcoin ETFs and stablecoins), lending, and support at the top management level. The final score is formed as a weighted average across all categories.
The absolute leader is Fidelity with a score of 71%. This is not surprising: back in 2018, the holding company launched a specialized division, Fidelity Digital Assets, and now its lineup includes its own successful spot ETF. Fidelity is followed by American giants: BNY (46%), Goldman Sachs (45%), Citigroup (43%), JPMorgan (43%), and Morgan Stanley (43%).
European and Japanese banks are currently showing weak dynamics. For example, Banco Santander and Société Générale are in the middle of the list with a score of around 35%, while Japan's SMBC and Canada's Royal Bank of Canada have only 13%.
Why this matters and what's next
The creators of the index emphasize that all figures are indicative and based on open data as of July 10. Strategy plans to regularly update the results and describe the methodology in detail. The company has also openly invited market participants to submit their corrections to refine the database.
The 32% figure is a signal. Banks are actively adopting Bitcoin storage and trading, but completely ignoring lending and stablecoin integration. My view as an analyst: this index is not just a marketing move by Strategy, but an important barometer for institutional investors. If we see growth to 50% or higher in a year, it will mean that banks have moved from point experiments to a systemic strategy. For now, we are only witnessing the beginning of a long journey.