Royal Bank of Canada increases stake in Strategy by 14% with $4M purchase

The Royal Bank of Canada just added another $4 million worth of Strategy Inc. shares to its growing pile, pushing its total position to 385,002 shares valued at roughly $37.2 million. That’s a 14% bump from its previous holding of 339,001 shares, and it continues a multi-quarter trend of the bank steadily accumulating stock in what has become Wall Street’s favorite way to get Bitcoin exposure without actually buying Bitcoin.

The accumulation pattern

Earlier this year, the bank disclosed a staggering 685% surge in its MSTR holdings during a single quarter, vaulting its position to 339,001 shares worth approximately $42.3 million at the time.

Prior to that spike, filings showed RBC holding around 188,657 shares, which represented a 16% increase from the period before it. The pattern is clear: buy, hold, buy more.

It’s worth noting that the valuation of RBC’s position has fluctuated meaningfully across reporting periods, even as share counts have grown. Those 188,657 shares were once valued at roughly $76 million, while the current 385,002 shares sit at $37.2 million. That’s twice the shares at half the valuation, a reflection of both Strategy’s stock price volatility and the choppy waters Bitcoin has navigated over the past year.

Why Strategy, why now

Strategy has transformed itself into something closer to a publicly traded Bitcoin fund with a software business attached. Under CEO Michael Saylor’s leadership, the company has been aggressively accumulating Bitcoin on its balance sheet, making it the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency. For institutional investors who want Bitcoin exposure but face regulatory constraints, compliance hurdles, or internal policy limitations around holding crypto directly, MSTR offers a workaround: a stock that trades on NASDAQ whose value is heavily correlated to Bitcoin’s price.

What this signals for institutional crypto appetite

No other major financial institutions were cited in connection with this particular share purchase, which positions RBC as something of a first mover among traditional banking peers in using MSTR as a Bitcoin proxy at this scale.

Regulatory frameworks for crypto assets remain in flux across North America, and direct Bitcoin investment still carries operational and reputational considerations for banks. Strategy offers a middle path: regulated, audited, publicly traded, and deeply tied to Bitcoin’s performance.

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