Saylor's Strategy tops BlackRock's IBIT in bitcoin holdings

CoinDesk reports that Strategy has moved ahead of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in total bitcoin holdings. After its latest buying spree, the company holds 815,061 BTC, edging past IBIT's 802,824 BTC. The ranking shift was driven by a major purchase between April 13 and 19, when Strategy bought 34,164 BTC for about $2.54 billion at an average price just under $74,400 per coin. The deal ranks as the firm's third-largest bitcoin acquisition and lifts the estimated value of its total position to roughly $61.5 billion. Strategy's stash now represents close to 3.9% of bitcoin's future supply. Funding came largely from preferred stock issuance. About 86% of the capital for the purchase was raised through preferreds, a structure that limits dilution for common shareholders while enabling continued accumulation. Michael Saylor has described the playbook as the "Satoshi Value Addition Method," a strategy supporters frame as sophisticated financing and critics call an outsized wager on bitcoin. The comparison with BlackRock comes with important caveats. IBIT is a passive ETF designed to mirror investor demand without taking on corporate leverage or balance-sheet risk. Strategy, by contrast, actively builds a bitcoin treasury using a mix of debt, equity, and structured financing. The approach can scale faster but carries higher risk. Market watchers see the milestone as a signal beyond the leaderboard. ETF inflows can swing with sentiment, while corporate treasury accumulation tends to be stickier once deployed, effectively locking up supply over time. Strategy's lead is narrow, and renewed ETF inflows could quickly put IBIT back in front. Even so, the episode underscores a broader shift: bitcoin is not only being adopted, it is being deliberately accumulated at scale—a trend the market can no longer ignore.