A $2 trillion asset manager has bought a 12% stake in bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor's Microstrategy

• Capital International Group, a $2.3 trillion asset manager, disclosed a 12.2% stake in Microstrategy.
• MicroStrategy, run by CEO Michael Saylor, hold over 105,000 bitcoin.
• Some investors have come to see companies like MicroStrategy as a handy alternative to investing in bitcoin directly.

Capital International Group, a $2.3 trillion asset manager based in LA, disclosed a 12.2% stake in bitcoin-focused MicroStrategy, according to SEC filings.

The disclosure, of some $560 million in MicroStrategy stock, makes Capital Group the second-biggest shareholder in the business intelligence firm, after BlackRock's $700 million stake.

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor has become a vaunted figure in bitcoin circles, elevated by his company's increasingly massive holdings of the cryptocurrency, currently at over 105,000 tokens. The company, which runs a data analytics platform, has spent a combined $2.7 billion buying bitcoin and has borrowed money and issued equity to do so, according to past filings.

MicroStrategy has gone as far as deeming bitcoin its "primary" treasury reserve asset, meaning the cryptocurrency is being used for day-to-day cash management.

Some investors have come to see companies like MicroStrategy as a handy alternative to investing in bitcoin directly, especially given the absence of a bitcoin ETF in America. Funds like VanEck's Digital Transformation ETF seek to replicate bitcoin's performance by holding equity in the likes of Square, Coinbase, and MicroStrategy.