JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou do not rank Strategy's Bitcoin sales as the central Bitcoin risk. The bigger risk, they argue, is that traditional finance increasingly bypasses public, permissionless networks in its blockchain adoption.
JPMorgan ranks among the largest US investment banks. For years, its research team under Managing Director Panigirtzoglou has supplied institutional investors with assessments of Bitcoin and crypto assets. In traditional finance, it counts as an influential reference. The latest report lands in the middle of the debate over Strategy's sales. At the same time, institutional tokenization initiatives are gaining momentum. These include the BIS Project Agorá and pilots run by the DTCC on controlled infrastructure. Moreover, the bank puts the tokenization market for real-world assets at roughly USD 50 billion. Strategy, in contrast, holds 843,775 BTC after its recent sales. Their market value of around USD 53.8 billion sits below the cost basis of about USD 63.7 billion.
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Strategy's Bitcoin sales are not JPMorgan's main risk
Strategy had first presented a Digital Credit Capital Framework in early July. The framework comprises five building blocks. At its core sits a formal BTC Monetization Program with a sales capacity of up to USD 1.25 billion. In the week to 6 July 2026, the company parted with 3,588 BTC and took in around USD 216 million. The proceeds fund dividends on the new digital credit preferred shares. As a result, the group still holds 843,775 BTC after the sale.
The position, however, trades at a loss. At a cost basis of around USD 63.7 billion, the average price stands at about USD 75,476 per BTC. Against that sits a market value of roughly USD 53.8 billion. In addition, the Bitcoin price recently hovered near USD 63,000, well below Michael Saylor's entry point. This paper loss therefore feeds concern among some market observers. They fear further selling pressure from the largest listed Bitcoin holder.
The JPMorgan analysts, however, play down exactly this concern. They explicitly do not rank Strategy's sales as the central structural threat to Bitcoin. The transactions are cyclical and tied to funding the preferred shares. They do not signal a structural break in the market. The real risk, the analysts argue, lies elsewhere.
Institutional blockchain adoption avoids public networks
The core of the report concerns the architecture of institutional tokenization. According to the analysts, institutional blockchain adoption is shifting increasingly toward permissioned networks. These are access-restricted systems with a controlled set of participants. Public chains such as Ethereum serve at best for distribution. They do not form the actual foundation. For Bitcoin and open networks, this therefore weakens the institutional adoption thesis.
"We do not see Strategy as the central structural threat to Bitcoin. In our view, the more important risk for Bitcoin lies in the broader crypto ecosystem and in the fact that blockchain adoption in traditional finance keeps developing in a way that bypasses public, permissionless networks." - Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, Managing Director at JPMorgan
This reading draws support from the Bank for International Settlements. The BIS warns against public permissionless blockchains for systemically important financial infrastructure and instead promotes permissioned unified ledgers. Its Project Agorá has run since April 2024 and brings together eight central banks and more than 40 financial institutions. The results presented in May 2026 confirm the technical feasibility of cross-border settlement. Furthermore, the US securities depository DTCC is developing its tokenization processes on controlled infrastructure. Examples include ComposerX and the Canton Network. It reviews a connection to Stellar only selectively.
Tokenization market still in an early experimental phase
In numbers, the tokenization of real-world assets stays modest. JPMorgan first puts the RWA market at around USD 50 billion, with a significant share on Ethereum. The analysts, however, classify this level as an early experimental phase, not a settled long-term market structure. Public chains therefore hold no dominant institutional position so far.
The external estimates also come out inconsistent. RWA.xyz reports around USD 26.71 billion in distributable value for June 2026. Other surveys, however, cite USD 31 billion to USD 65 billion. Ethereum's share likewise swings between 33 and 65 percent depending on the methodology. This range shows how unfinished the data foundation of this market is.
Where public chains do come into play, it usually happens under conditions. Securitize, for example, issues tokenized assets on Solana and Avalanche, though through a regulated platform with admission controls. For a Swiss audience, the pattern is familiar. The SIX Digital Exchange has operated a FINMA-regulated, permissioned DLT infrastructure since 2021. It serves the issuance and custody of tokenized securities. It thus provides an early institutional proof of exactly this model. The analysts now describe it as a structural counterpart to public chains.
