BNY Mellon raises its Strive stake by 39% to 257,718 shares

BNY Mellon has increased its position in Strive, the Bitcoin treasury company listed on Nasdaq under the ticker ASST, by 39%. The bank now holds 257,718 shares.

That stake was worth approximately $6 million as of early November 2026. For a bank with over $45 trillion in assets under custody, $6 million is roughly the financial equivalent of a rounding error.

Still, the direction matters more than the size. One of the oldest names in American banking chose to add exposure to a company whose entire pitch is holding Bitcoin.

What BNY Mellon actually bought

The move was a share purchase, not a Bitcoin purchase. BNY Mellon raised its holding in Strive’s equity by 39%, which brings the total to 257,718 shares.

There is no evidence that BNY Mellon bought Bitcoin directly as part of this. Its exposure here runs through the stock of a company that owns the coins.

The scale gap is hard to overstate. BNY Mellon has over $45 trillion in assets under custody and approximately $2.1 trillion in assets under management.

Who Strive is and how it builds its treasury

Strive holds over 43,000 BTC on its balance sheet. That puts it among the largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holders, in the same conversation as MicroStrategy.

The company was co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy and is run by CEO Matt Cole. Its approach to building a Bitcoin pile differs from the playbook some peers have used.

Instead of borrowing, Strive has funded its Bitcoin buying mainly through stock offerings. As of late 2026, it maintained a balance sheet with no debt.

A key tool is perpetual preferred stock, which yields between 13% and 15%. Perpetual preferreds pay a dividend but carry no maturity date.

That structure carries its own cost. A 13-15% yield is a hefty bill to keep paying, and it means Strive’s financing is not free simply because it avoids loans.

The debt-free setup changes the risk profile in one notable way. Without loans backed by Bitcoin, a sharp drop in the coin’s price does not force the company to sell holdings to satisfy lenders.

The broader trend: Bitcoin exposure through the stock market

BNY Mellon’s purchase fits a pattern among institutional investors. Many are choosing equities in Bitcoin treasury firms as their route to the asset, rather than buying coins outright or using exchange-traded funds.

Holding a Nasdaq-listed stock slots neatly into existing systems, compliance processes and reporting lines. Holding actual Bitcoin, by contrast, raises questions about wallets, keys and specialized custody.

What this means

For the market, the immediate impact of this particular trade is likely limited. A position worth approximately $6 million is small relative to BNY Mellon’s overall portfolio, and small relative to Strive’s Bitcoin holdings.

For Strive, a growing roster of institutional shareholders could matter. A company that funds Bitcoin purchases by selling stock depends on a steady appetite for that stock.

Strive’s model also offers a test case for other firms weighing a treasury strategy. Funding purchases with preferred equity rather than debt is one answer to the question of how to stack Bitcoin without risking a forced sale.

Whether that answer holds up depends on Strive’s ability to keep servicing those 13-15% dividends. That obligation does not care what Bitcoin does next.

For investors weighing treasury stocks, the takeaway is to look beyond the headline Bitcoin count. The financing behind those coins shapes the risk as much as the coins themselves.