With its enormous Bitcoin holdings, Strategy is making a risky bet. But copycats could prove even more dangerous for the market. Corporations are buying more and more Bitcoin. Led by Strategy Inc., the top 100 corporate Bitcoin treasuries now sit on more than $100 billion worth of BTC - Btcointreasuries.net. What looks like a positive development at first glance carries major systemic risks. Here’s who’s behind it—and how they could make the market implode.
Tesla: Now just one BTC treasury among many
When Tesla disclosed a $1.5 billion Bitcoin purchase in early 2021, it was a thunderclap for crypto. For the first time, a globally recognized blue chip added a Bitcoin treasury to its balance sheet. BTC jumped 20% in short order and left a lasting mark. True, Strategy (then still MicroStrategy) had started accumulating BTC in 2020, but Tesla’s brand power and ticket size had far greater impact.
Today, the corporate BTC landscape looks very different. It’s no longer the automaker under Elon Musk that sets the tone, but the Virginia-based software firm whose unparalleled buying spree has made it the largest Bitcoin holder among public companies.
Strategy and its imitators
Michael Saylor’s headline-grabbing strategy hasn’t only had positive effects. It creates a systemic risk. Inspired by Strategy, a host of companies are trying to replicate the model—often drifting away from their original core businesses.
The goal is simple: capture upside from Bitcoin’s appreciation with minimal operational effort. A closer look at the financials of roughly 100 listed firms reveals a fragile ecosystem with extreme overweights, regional concentration risk, and a notable absence of the true tech titans—ingredients for a dangerous feedback loop.
According to BitcoinTreasuries.net, the 100 largest listed holders control about 988,000 BTC—roughly 5% of circulating supply—worth over $108 billion at current prices.
But the distribution is anything but broad. A handful hold the lion’s share. Strategy alone controls about two-thirds: 632,457 BTC on the books. At ~$110,000 per coin, that’s roughly $70 billion—nearly three-quarters of the company’s entire market value.
Few true heavyweights beyond Coinbase
Next are miners like Marathon Digital (50,000+ BTC), Riot Platforms (~19,000), and CleanSpark (12,000+). Familiar tech names are rare—Coinbase (~11,700 BTC) and Tesla (11,500) are the exceptions.
The takeaway: contrary to popular belief, “corporate adoption” isn’t broad-based. It’s concentrated in specialized—or very small—companies where BTC dominates the balance sheet, and thus the equity story, far more than their operating businesses do.
10 Bitcoin treasuries with extreme exposure
In the following firms, the value of BTC holdings meets or exceeds their market capitalization:
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XXI (USA) — 43,514 BTC ≈ 1,992% exposure (≈ 20× market cap)
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SOS Limited (China) — 803 BTC, 580% exposure
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3U Holding AG (Germany) — 363 BTC, 528% exposure
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LM Funding America (USA) — 311 BTC, 495% exposure
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Microcloud Hologram (Cayman/USA) — 2,353 BTC, ~390% of market cap
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Ming Shing Group (Hong Kong) — 833 BTC, 373% exposure
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Bitcoin Treasury Corp (Canada) — 771 BTC, 333% exposure
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Sequans Communications (France) — 3,170 BTC, 255% exposure
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Bitcoin Group SE (Germany) — 3,605 BTC, 175% exposure
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Semler Scientific (USA) — 5,021 BTC, 124% exposure
The most conservative corporate treasuries
Here, BTC barely moves the needle:
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Neowiz Holdings (Korea) — 123 BTC, negligible impact
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Tesla (USA) — 11,509 BTC, just 0.1% of $1.1T market cap
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Coinbase (USA) — 11,776 BTC (~$1.3B), 1.7% of ~$79B market cap
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Nexon (Japan) — 1,717 BTC, ~1.1% of ~$18B market cap
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Virtu Financial (USA) — 410 BTC, 0.5% exposure
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MercadoLibre (Argentina) — 570 BTC, ~0.1% of $122B market cap
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Aker ASA (Norway) — 754 BTC, 1.6% exposure
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Satsuma Technology (UK) — 1,126 BTC, ~1.4% exposure
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ATAI Life Sciences (Germany) — 58 BTC, 0.6% exposure
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FRMO Corp. (USA) — 63 BTC, <2% exposure
Michael Saylor, head of Strategy, has turned the company into a public Bitcoin fund, financed through debt and equity sales. The software business is now secondary. Many analysts call the stock a “Bitcoin proxy.”
The risk is concentration: if BTC drops sharply, Strategy’s balance sheet goes negative. Lenders may tighten conditions, and forced sales could follow. Even selling 10% of holdings—over 60,000 BTC—would disrupt global markets.
Bitcoin bear cycles are common, with past declines of 60–80%. A 50% drop from the all-time high would push BTC near $60,000. Strategy’s average cost is above $70,000, so even a moderate pullback could mean losses.
For miners, the situation is worse. Revenue depends directly on BTC’s price, and many hold mined coins. This double exposure makes them vulnerable to forced selling.
Small-cap firms with heavy BTC exposure add more risk. Companies like XXI, SOS Limited, and LM Funding America hold more Bitcoin than their own valuations. Many have weak core businesses, effectively acting as high-risk Bitcoin funds.
The major tech giants are mostly absent. Apart from Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Nvidia do not hold BTC reserves. Reasons include balance sheet policy, regulatory risks, better capital use in R&D and AI, and ESG concerns about Bitcoin’s energy use.
About 70% of corporate Bitcoin holdings are with US-listed companies. That concentration makes US regulation a major risk factor. Europe is marginal, with few exceptions such as Sequans Communications in France.
Bottom line: Bitcoin treasuries are fragile. A few players hold most coins, while many small firms carry extreme risk. If the market falls, forced sales could trigger a chain reaction. Corporate treasuries signal adoption, but they also magnify downside risk.
