In its SEC filings, the asset management firm BNY Mellon revealed that the poor performance of its exchange-traded fund (ETF) was due to its non-exposure to assets invested in Bitcoin.
The bank noted that its BNY Mellon Opportunistic Small Cap Fund (DSCVX) performance was partly because it had no exposure to MicroStrategy.
MicroStrategy bought its first Bitcoin mid-last year and has since then acquired nearly 100,000 BTC. In its first-quarter earnings report, the firm recently announced that its equity has grown by 385.59% after adopting Bitcoin.
According to BNY Mellon, the DSCVX underperformed its benchmark, Russell 2000 index, from September 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, rising by 35%.
The benchmark, on the other hand, rose by 41.7% in the same timeframe. Furthermore, the filings reveal that the fund’s performance was also due to “weak gold prices.”
BNY Mellon Shows Interest in Bitcoin
While BNY Mellon is regretting not investing in cryptocurrency, the Amplify Transformation Data Sharing (BLOK) – the ETF with the most exposure to MicroStrategy shares – has had a 59.63% year-to-date return as of April 5.
However, BNY Mellon has also revealed its interest in crypto assets. In February, the bank announced that it would launch a new digital custody unit later this year.