Standard Chartered reports growing sovereign Bitcoin exposure through MicroStrategy holdings, backing a $500,000 price target by 2029, amid rising institutional interest as of May 2025.

SEC DATA BACKS BITCOIN $500K TARGET BY 2028: STANDARD CHARTERED

Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick says recent SEC 13F filings support a possible rise in Bitcoin to $500,000 by end-2028. While direct ETF holdings dipped in Q1, government entities boosted stakes in Strategy…

— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) May 20, 2025

Standard Chartered: Sovereign Wealth Funds Increase Bitcoin Exposure via MicroStrategy

Standard Chartered’s report, based on Q1 2025 SEC 13F filings, reveals that sovereign wealth funds and government entities have significantly increased their holdings in MicroStrategy, a company known for its substantial Bitcoin investments.

Source: Standard Chartered

Norway’s Government Pension Fund, the Swiss National Bank, and South Korea’s pension bodies each added the equivalent of 700 BTC through MSTR shares, while U.S. state retirement funds in California, New York, North Carolina, and Kentucky collectively added 1,000 BTC equivalent. First-time buyers like Saudi Arabia and France also entered the space with smaller positions, signaling expanding global interest. 

MicroStrategy itself holds 576,230 BTC valued at approximately $61,4 billion at Bitcoin’s current price.

Source: Saylor Tracker

This indirect exposure aligns with a broader trend of institutional adoption. Standard Chartered’s head of digital assets, Geoffrey Kendrick, emphasized that this trend supports the bank’s $500,000 Bitcoin BTC price target by 2029, coinciding with the end of President Donald Trump’s term. 

However, the report also noted a decline in direct Bitcoin ETF ownership, with Wisconsin offloading its 3,400 BTC-equivalent position in BlackRock’s IBIT ETF, indicating a strategic shift toward indirect exposure via MSTR.

Institutional Momentum Accelerates Bitcoin’s Global Ascent

The growing sovereign interest in Bitcoin via MicroStrategy underscores its increasing acceptance as a store of value among traditional financial entities. MicroStrategy’s strategy of using debt to acquire Bitcoin—adding $42.6 billion to corporate treasuries since 2021, per River’s May 2025 report—has made it a proxy for Bitcoin exposure, especially for entities cautious about direct crypto investments. This trend could drive Bitcoin’s price higher, as increased demand from sovereign funds may reduce available supply. 

Read more: JPMorgan Shifts Stance, Signals Institutional Embrace of Bitcoin

However, challenges remain. The concentration of Bitcoin exposure in MicroStrategy raises concerns about centralization risks when MSTR’s holdings expose major funds like BlackRock to Bitcoin volatility. 

Despite this, the institutional momentum, coupled with Bitcoin’s halving in 2024, which reduced issuance to 450 BTC per day (per Blockchain.com), supports a bullish outlook, potentially pushing Bitcoin toward $150,000 by the end of 2025 if institutional inflows continue.

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