JPMorgan Lifts Its Strategy (MSTR) Stake 36% and Holds $540 Million in Bitcoin ETFs

Bitcoin Magazine

JPMorgan Lifts Its Strategy (MSTR) Stake 36% and Holds $540 Million in Bitcoin ETFs

JPMorgan Chase raised its Strategy (MSTR) stake 36% in the third quarter, a Form 13F filed Thursday shows, lifting the position to 848,932 shares worth $131.3 million at Sept. 30, weeks before an MSCI index exit.

That is up 224,545 shares from the 624,387 JPMorgan reported at June 30, when the same holding was valued at $57.87 million. Part of the dollar jump is the stock. Strategy’s implied price on the two filings rose from $92.68 at June 30 to $154.67 at Sept. 30, so the disclosed stake more than doubled in value even though the share count rose 36%.

The same filing shows a much larger bitcoin ETF line. JPMorgan held 11,408,930 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) worth $539.98 million at Sept. 30, up 1,001,295 shares, or 9.6%, from 10,407,635 shares worth $355.73 million three months earlier. Rounded to the nearest million, that IBIT line is the $540 million bitcoin ETF stake.

Smaller positions in other spot funds added a little more. The bank also held 155,785 shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust worth $5.76 million and 66,264 shares of the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF worth $3.00 million, plus much smaller lines in Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust and Invesco’s Galaxy Bitcoin ETF. Together, the spot bitcoin ETF shares came to about $549 million. Option positions are listed separately and are not part of that total.

JPMorgan filed a holdings report that folds in positions across 17 other included managers, so the Strategy and IBIT lines can include client, fund and discretionary positions rather than a single proprietary bet, and the firm may have changed those holdings since Sept. 30. The table lists 35,990 entries valued at $1.84 trillion. Executive Director Michael T. Lees signed the report in New York on Nov. 12.

Options sit beside the share totals, not inside the $540 million

The $540 million figure is shares only. JPMorgan also reported IBIT call options covering 3,703,200 shares, valued at $175.27 million, and put options covering 2,915,000 shares, valued at $137.97 million.

The Strategy options are larger still, relative to the common stock. The filing lists put options covering 1,148,500 Strategy shares, valued at $177.64 million, more than the $131.3 million stock line, and call options covering 349,500 shares, valued at $54.06 million. A 13F does not say whether those options are hedges, market-making inventory or client positions, and they should not be read as a single directional bet.