Stacking Insights #4 - Bitcoin News September, 2025

One Big Idea

Institutions continue to position themselves for greater Bitcoin acceptance and holding through partnerships, acquisitions, and regulatory approvals.

Your Stacking Insights

Here’s happened this week in the journey of financializing Bitcoin.

1. U.S. Bank revives institutional Bitcoin custody

U.S. Bancorp restarted institutional BTC custody, with NYDIG as sub-custodian, after the 2025 rescission of the SEC’s SAB 121 removed prior balance-sheet frictions.

2. Strive Asset Manager (ASST) to acquire Semler Scientific (SMLR); commits to large BTC buy

Strive agreed to buy Semler (~$1.34B all-stock) and concurrently purchase 5,816 BTC (~$675M), taking combined holdings >10,900 BTC.

3. FED cuts 25 bps; guidance cautious—macro still drives BTC beta

The Fed cut rates by 25 bps (first since December), signaled two more cuts possible in ’25. CPI/PCE data remained sticky. Bitcoin and ETF flows oscillated around the decision.

4. SEC opens door to ETF share classes across mutual funds

The SEC granted the first approval (to Dimensional Fund Advisors) to add ETF share classes to existing mutual funds, signaling broader relief for dozens of pending applications. While not crypto-specific, this can materially expand distribution pipes for spot bitcoin ETFs via fund complexes already running mutual funds.

5. Binance pilots Crypto-as-a-Service for Institutions

Binance launched Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS), a white-label solution enabling traditional financial institutions to offer crypto trading services using Binance's infrastructure, covering Spot and Futures trading, liquidity, custody, and compliance

6. ⚠️SEC streamlines spot crypto ETF approvals with generic listing standards⚠️

SEC approved rule changes allowing NYSE/Nasdaq/Cboe to list spot commodity/crypto ETFs via generic standards, shortening approval cycles (down to ~75 days). This broadens beyond BTC/ETH (e.g., SOL/XRP baskets).

⚠️This is a signal that the non-Bitcoin coin scams that took place in 2021 with FTX and other platforms will likely permeate some financial institutions with larger liquidity and potentially more broad sweeping affects. BE VERY CAREFUL about which institutions are adopting non-Bitcoin ETFs⚠️

7. French Asset Manager Amundi buys large stake in Bitcoin Treasury Company MicroStrategy

International institution Amundi, unable to buy Bitcoin directly, has opted to acquire a large stake in Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder with over 640,000 Bitcoin or just over 3% of all the Bitcoin that will ever exist.

8. Google indirectly buys into Bitcoin Miner through $3 Billion HPC Deal

Cipher (CIFR) signed a 10-year, $3B revenue HPC colocation deal with Fluidstack; Google to financially support $1.4B of lease obligations in exchange for warrants (~5.4% stake potential). Texas sites to expand capacity materially

9. Morgan Stanley to add crypto trading via E*Trade (2026 launch)

Morgan Stanley announced that through a partnership with Zerohash, it will permit cryptocurrency (including BTC) trading on its E*Trade platform starting in H1 2026. While not specific to Bitcoin, it still shows further institutional expansion from dollar based investments.

10. Public companies have bought over 37,828 Bitcoin in the last 20 days (as of Sept 24th)

The corporate adoption of Bitcoin has reached new heights. The new floor to be included in the top 100 Public Companies holding Bitcoin has reached a new threshold of 100 Bitcoin. This was only 29 Bitcoin as of July 2025, a 3x increase in the floor to be in the top 100 public company holders.

Those are the big highlights for September.

If you’re curious to learn more about Bitcoin, how it can be used in your life and business, or simply want to chat, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thanks for reading!

Lucas Bazemore