Strategy’s New Bitcoin Report Card Shows Big Banks Still Get a C-Minus
Strategy's new index scores 25 major banks on Bitcoin services — the average is just 32%, with Fidelity way out in front at 71%.
If your bank still won’t touch Bitcoin, you’re not imagining things. A new scorecard from Strategy — the company run by Michael Saylor that holds more Bitcoin than any other publicly traded firm — says the world’s biggest banks are only 32% of the way toward fully embracing BTC.
Strategy calls it the Bitcoin Banking Adoption Index, and it grades 25 major global banks on things that actually matter to everyday customers: whether you can hold Bitcoin in custody there, trade a Bitcoin ETF through them, borrow against your crypto, or buy a stablecoin from them. The average score across all 25 banks came out to 32%.
Fidelity is way out in front — here’s who else made the list
Fidelity topped the index with a 71% score, earning full marks for offering Bitcoin custody, ETF trading, direct BTC access, and stablecoin issuance all under one roof. BNY Mellon came second at 46%, with Goldman Sachs close behind at 45%.
Beyond the top three, Spain’s Banco Santander, France’s Société Générale, and the UK’s Standard Chartered also ranked among the leaders. Overall, US banks pulled ahead of their European and Asian counterparts, suggesting American institutions are moving faster to offer Bitcoin-related services to clients.
Saylor summed up the findings simply: “Major-bank Bitcoin adoption is accelerating, but still early: 32% overall as measured by the index.”
Why the “credit” score is the one to watch
The part of the index generating the most buzz is the credit category — essentially, whether a bank will let you borrow money against Bitcoin you already own, or against Bitcoin ETF shares like BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). This is the piece that would let Bitcoin function less like a speculative asset sitting untouched in a wallet, and more like a house or a stock portfolio you can use as collateral for a loan.
That’s directly tied to Saylor’s long-running ambition of building what he’s called the “world’s first Bitcoin bank” — a financial institution built around lending, custody, and everyday banking services all backed by Bitcoin. The new index reads like a progress report on how close the traditional banking world is to making that kind of thing normal, rather than experimental.
What this means for your own Bitcoin
For everyday holders, this isn’t just a scoreboard for Wall Street bragging rights. It’s a rough map of which banks are actually building the plumbing that lets ordinary people use Bitcoin the way they use cash or stocks today — depositing it, borrowing against it, or trading an ETF version of it through a bank they already trust.
A 32% average score tells you most banks still have a long way to go, and that access to these services depends heavily on where you bank and what country you’re in. If you’re holding Bitcoin and hoping to eventually use it for loans or everyday banking the way Saylor envisions, this index suggests that future is arriving — just slower, and more unevenly, than the hype might suggest.
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