Strategy Inc., the software company that turned itself into the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, just handed Wall Street a report card. Fidelity scored 71%. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are bunched three points apart in the low 40s, fighting for a distant second place.
The company grading the banks holds more Bitcoin than any of them. And the score everyone is fighting over covers only part of a much bigger contest: a race to put bank deposits, funds and securities on blockchains that does not need Bitcoin at all.
Scoring Bitcoin Adoption With Harvey Balls
Strategy published the Bitcoin Banking Adoption Index on July 13, 2026, built on public information through July 10. The company scored major banks across five areas: trading, custody, products, lending and executive activity, using Harvey balls, the small circles filled in stages that consultants have used for decades to show partial progress toward a goal.
Bitcoin and spot ETF trading, custody for Bitcoin and ether, stablecoin and tokenization work, yield and lending products, underwriting for exchange traded products, and whether a bank’s own treasury holds Bitcoin all feed into the same grade. Strategy calls the result a high level snapshot rather than a fully reproducible benchmark, and says offerings can vary by geography, client type and access channel.
| Bank | Bitcoin Adoption Index Score | Beyond the Index |
|---|---|---|
| Fidelity | 71% | Runs Fidelity Digital Assets, launched in 2018, plus the FBTC spot Bitcoin ETF |
| BNY | 46% | Piloting Swift’s blockchain ledger for tokenized deposits |
| Goldman Sachs | 45% | Filed for a Bitcoin ETF in April 2026; joined the DTCC’s tokenization pilot |
| JPMorgan Chase | 43% | Joined the DTCC’s tokenized securities pilot |
| Morgan Stanley | 43% | Joined the DTCC’s tokenized securities pilot |
| Citigroup | 43% | Piloting Swift’s blockchain ledger and the DTCC’s tokenization program |
Fidelity’s 71% leans on Fidelity Digital Assets, the custody arm the firm launched in 2018, years before most rivals treated Bitcoin as more than a curiosity. The firm also runs the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, a spot ETF trading on NYSE Arca under the ticker FBTC.
A Three-Point Scrum for Second Place
Below Fidelity, the gap tightens fast. BNY sits at 46%. Goldman Sachs follows at 45%. JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup each land at 43%, a three-point spread separating five of the largest financial institutions in the country.
The cluster’s best score, Goldman’s 45%, is barely two-thirds of Fidelity’s tally. This quarter’s bank earnings season hinted at why the gap persists even as balance sheets grow more comfortable with crypto: JPMorgan and Goldman both pointed to crypto-adjacent trading gains on their desks, a sign the appetite is real even where the index score still lags.
More than 15 banks are separately racing to move assets onto blockchains through tokenization, a shift that sidesteps Bitcoin entirely and could reshape how the index looks the next time Strategy updates it.
Why Would a Bitcoin Holder Grade Bank Bitcoin Adoption?
Because Strategy’s own balance sheet depends on the answer. The company holds the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury on earth, and wider bank adoption feeds the same demand that props up its stock and its convertible debt. Saylor has said limited banking acceptance is one of the primary obstacles facing Strategy and the broader corporate Bitcoin treasury movement, which makes a friendlier banking sector a direct benefit to the firm doing the grading.
A company with that position publishing its own adoption index is closer to a marketing instrument than an independent benchmark.
Spendnode, a firm that tracks card issuers, made that assessment on X the week the index published. Not everyone in the digital asset world reads the score the same way.
- Michael Saylor, Strategy’s executive chairman, treats the 32% overall figure as early stage evidence that big bank Bitcoin adoption is accelerating from almost nothing a year ago.
- Marc Baumann, founder of digital asset commentary firm 51, argues the settlement rails matter more than the score itself, since allocation tends to follow the infrastructure banks build rather than lead it.
- Finextra’s reading of 2026 tokenization data is more cautious than the boldest forecasts, judging a several trillion dollar tokenized market by 2030 a better fit for the current trajectory than the double digit trillion projections that get quoted most.
Swift and the DTCC Are Running a Bigger Race
Swift flipped its blockchain ledger live on July 9, four days before Strategy’s index published. A blockchain ledger pilot spanning six continents now includes 17 banks testing tokenized deposit transfers around the clock, weekends included, before final settlement runs through existing systems.
Citi and BNY, two names from Strategy’s own list, are both on that roster, alongside more than a dozen banks from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. Thierry Chilosi, Swift’s chief business officer, said the ledger is “extending the trust and stability of established finance into the frontiers of digital money.”
- April 2026: Stablecoins in circulation cross $319 billion.
- May 2026: The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, which custodies more than $114 trillion in securities, begins piloting tokenized securities trading with more than 50 firms, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and BlackRock.
- July 9, 2026: Swift’s blockchain ledger goes live for the 17 bank pilot.
- Mid 2026: Tokenized real world assets on chain reach roughly $32 billion, nearly triple the total from a year earlier.
Notably absent from Swift’s roster are JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, both of which run their own digital asset platforms and joined the DTCC’s tokenized securities pilot instead. The DTCC’s pilot covers Russell 1000 equities and Treasuries, with a full commercial launch possible by October.
Fidelity’s Tokenized Fund Undercuts Its Own Bitcoin Lead
Fidelity’s 71% score rests heavily on Bitcoin custody and its spot ETF. But Fidelity International, a sister arm serving investors outside the United States, launched its own tokenized fund, FILQ, in May, joining a category of treasury focused tokenized money market funds worth close to $15 billion.
That fund, alongside a fast growing shelf of tokenized Treasuries and money market products across the industry, sits outside the parts of Strategy’s index that get scored in detail. The index folds stablecoin and tokenization work into one shared category alongside Bitcoin custody, lending and ETPs, treating a shift some forecasts price in the trillions by 2030 as a slice of a single grade, even though today’s on chain total sits closer to $32 billion.
A $60 billion tokenized asset market that barely trades is how one recent count of more than 7,000 tokenized products put it, a reminder that size and activity are not the same thing in this race either.
Vanguard and the Regional Banks Are Still on the Sidelines
Vanguard is even further behind. The asset manager only recently began mapping out its own crypto strategy, years after Fidelity built Fidelity Digital Assets. Smaller regional lenders have barely started, Strategy’s own data shows.
The gap widens abroad. Banco Santander and Societe Generale sit near the middle of the table around 35%, while Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and the Royal Bank of Canada score just 13%, the lowest marks Strategy handed out to any institution it graded.
What Ships by December Could Reorder the Board
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Citi are each developing several crypto initiatives slated for release within the year: possible new exchange traded products, custody expansions or tokenization tools already in the works. Phong Le, Strategy’s chief executive, expects those launches to bring significantly more clarity to the sector by year end.
Whether Goldman or JPMorgan claims outright second place will likely come down to which products actually ship before December. Strategy’s scorecard puts bank Bitcoin adoption at 32% of the way there. Swift’s ledger and the DTCC’s pilot suggest the bigger number, the one worth trillions, is being built somewhere the index barely looks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a High Score Mean Customers Use the Bank’s Bitcoin Products?
Not necessarily. Strategy’s own methodology notes say the rankings show whether a capability is publicly visible, not customer numbers, transaction volumes, assets, revenue or profitability. A bank can score well while offering a Bitcoin product only to institutional or private wealth clients in a handful of markets.
Which Banks Are Piloting Swift’s Blockchain Ledger?
Seventeen banks across six continents are testing Swift’s shared ledger for tokenized deposits, including BNY, Citi, HSBC, UBS, Standard Chartered, Lloyds, MUFG, BNP Paribas, DBS, UOB, ANZ, Wells Fargo, FirstRand, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Itau Unibanco, Mashreq and OCBC. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are not on that list.
What Is the Difference Between Bitcoin Custody and Asset Tokenization?
Bitcoin custody means a bank safely holds Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency on behalf of clients, similar to how it holds stocks or cash. Tokenization takes a traditional asset, a Treasury bond, a money market fund, a loan, and represents ownership of it as a digital token on a blockchain. The two often share technology but serve different purposes, and they show up as separate line items in Strategy’s index.
When Will Strategy Update the Bitcoin Banking Adoption Index?
Strategy has not set a fixed schedule but says it plans to publish full methodology details and refresh the rankings as banks disclose new products, custody expansions or tokenization tools. Executives expect the picture to look different by the end of 2026 as pending launches from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup reach the market.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Bitcoin and other digital assets are highly volatile and carry real risk, so consult a licensed financial adviser before acting on anything here; figures reflect market data available as of publication.
