Bitcoin Treasury Companies 2026: Strategy, MARA, Metaplanet, and Beyond

TL;DR

• Bitcoin treasury companies are publicly-traded firms that hold meaningful percentages of their balance sheet in bitcoin (BTC) as a primary or secondary reserve asset. Total corporate holdings reached approximately 1.0-1.2 million BTC by April 2026 — roughly 5-6% of the eventual 21M supply.
• Strategy Inc. (MSTR) dominates the cohort with ~700,000 BTC, more than the next 20 companies combined. The 2024-2025 cycle has produced dozens of imitators: MARA Holdings, Metaplanet, Twenty One Capital, Semler Scientific and others.
• The macro context has been transformed by the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve executive order (March 6, 2025), the Czech National Bank study on bitcoin reserves, and a wave of national-level interest in bitcoin as a treasury asset.
• Most corporate bitcoin holders fall into four categories: (1) software-co treasury pivots (Strategy, Metaplanet, Semler); (2) bitcoin miners with full-hodl policies (MARA, Riot, CleanSpark, Hut 8, Cipher); (3) crypto-native operating companies (Coinbase, Block, Galaxy, Tether); (4) SPAC and SPV vehicles (Twenty One Capital). Each carries distinct risks beyond pure BTC price exposure.

Table of contents

• What is a bitcoin treasury company?
• The four archetypes
• Master comparison table
• Strategy (MSTR)
• MARA Holdings
• Tesla
• Riot Platforms
• Block, Inc.
• Hut 8
• CleanSpark
• Coinbase Global
• Galaxy Digital
• Metaplanet (Japan)
• Twenty One Capital
• Cipher Mining, Bitfarms, IREN, Argo
• Smaller treasury copycats
• The macro context: sovereign and quasi-sovereign bitcoin holdings
• Trump Media (TMTG) bitcoin plans
• Risks and criticism
• How to invest in bitcoin treasury companies
• Research and reports
• FAQ
• Glossary

What is a bitcoin treasury company?

A bitcoin treasury company is a publicly-traded operating business that has formally allocated a meaningful portion of its corporate treasury to bitcoin (chain:bitcoin) as a primary or secondary reserve asset. The thesis, articulated most fully by Michael Saylor at Strategy but adopted now by dozens of firms, is that bitcoin is the highest-quality long-duration store of value available to corporate treasurers in an environment of monetary expansion.

What separates a "treasury company" from a company that merely owns some bitcoin is intent and scale. Apple, Microsoft, and Google could buy 1,000 BTC each tomorrow without affecting their corporate strategy or share-price profile; that would be passive treasury management. By contrast, a true bitcoin treasury company has (a) a publicly stated bitcoin-accumulation policy; (b) a meaningful percentage of enterprise value tied to BTC holdings; (c) capital-markets activity (equity, convertibles, preferred stock) explicitly aimed at funding bitcoin purchases; and (d) a share price that trades as a partial proxy for BTC.

This framework, codified during the 2020-2024 cycle by Strategy, has proven extraordinarily contagious. By April 2026 there are at least 30 named bitcoin treasury companies on global exchanges plus dozens of smaller listings in the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and Latin America. The global stock of corporate bitcoin holdings has grown from roughly 0.7M BTC in early 2024 to 1.0-1.2M BTC by April 2026 — much of it acquired during the post-Bitcoin halving bull cycle that culminated in the January 2025 ATH at $109,114.

The four archetypes

Bitcoin treasury companies cluster into four operational archetypes:

Archetype 1 — Software/services treasury pivot

Original-business-line is enterprise software, healthcare or services. Treasury thesis added in 2020+ as primary capital-allocation strategy. Funding via equity ATM, convertible notes, preferred stock. Examples: Strategy, Metaplanet, Semler Scientific, Smarter Web Company, Genius Group, Cango.

Archetype 2 — Bitcoin miner with full-hodl policy

Original business is bitcoin mining or AI compute. Treasury accumulates organically through retained mining production. Funding via equity issuance and (sometimes) bitcoin-collateralized debt. Examples: MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, Hut 8, Cipher Mining, Bitfarms, IREN/Iris Energy.

Archetype 3 — Crypto-native operating company

Operates as exchange, broker, custodian or fintech with bitcoin holdings as part of treasury or operating reserves. Examples: Coinbase, Galaxy Digital, Block, Inc., Tether (private but discloses ~$96K BTC).

Archetype 4 — SPAC, SPV and copycat vehicles

New 2024-2025 cohort of SPAC-style or holding-company vehicles created explicitly to mimic Strategy's playbook on a fresh balance sheet. Examples: Twenty One Capital, Bitcoin Magazine BTCM (private), various 2025 UK/Asian listings.

A fifth, half-archetype: legacy non-crypto companies that hold modest bitcoin without an explicit accumulation policy. Tesla is the canonical example.

Master comparison table

The following table summarizes the 25 most important bitcoin treasury companies as of April 2026:

Numbers are approximate and disclosed by quarterly filings or company self-reports; see SEC EDGAR or company IR pages for current precise figures.

Strategy (MSTR)

The reigning category leader. With ~700,000 BTC, Strategy alone holds about 3.3% of all bitcoin in existence. Founded 1989 as MicroStrategy, pivoted to bitcoin treasury August 2020, rebranded to "Strategy" February 5, 2025. Capital instruments: MSTR common stock, four series of preferred stock (STRK, STRF, STRD, STRC), convertible notes, and the $21B ATM equity offering. Joined Nasdaq-100 December 23, 2024. The full deep-dive is in our companion guide: Strategy (MSTR) Complete Guide.

Saylor's stated public goal: 1,000,000 BTC by 2030 under the Strategy 21/21 Plan.

MARA Holdings

MARA Holdings, Inc. (company:mara-holdings) — formerly Marathon Digital — is the largest publicly-traded bitcoin miner by hashrate and the second-largest corporate BTC holder (~44,000 BTC). CEO Fred Thiel adopted an explicit "Full HODL" treasury policy (company:mara-hodl-policy) in early 2024, retaining 100% of mined production rather than selling to fund operations. Operations are funded entirely through equity issuance and bitcoin-collateralized lines of credit.

MARA operates over 50 EH/s of mining hashrate across multiple US sites and is one of the most energy-cost-conscious miners in the cohort. Its 2024-2025 pivot to ASIC ownership-and-operate (vs. hosting-only) and gradual exposure to AI compute have positioned it as a mining-plus-treasury hybrid. Investor messaging emphasizes BTC-per-share growth analogous to Strategy's BTC Yield metric.

Risks: like all miners, MARA is exposed to electricity prices, ASIC depreciation, hashrate competition, and post-halving block-reward economics. The stock is correlated to bitcoin but with much higher operational beta.

Tesla

Tesla (company:tesla) holds approximately 11,000 BTC as of April 2026. The original purchase was a $1.5B allocation in early 2021 — a watershed moment for corporate bitcoin adoption that many credit with triggering the broader cycle. In Q2 2022, Tesla sold ~75% of its position (about 30,000 BTC), citing pandemic-era cash needs. From 2023 onward, the position has been roughly flat with small accretive add-ons.

Unlike Strategy, Tesla is not a true treasury company in the four-archetype sense: bitcoin is a passive treasury reserve, not the strategic core of the business. Elon Musk has periodically signaled bitcoin support and skepticism, and the BTC line on Tesla's balance sheet has been a recurring source of investor speculation. The position is now small enough relative to Tesla's >$700B market cap that it has limited price-action impact.

Riot Platforms

Riot Platforms (company:riot-platforms) holds ~17,000 BTC and is one of the four largest US-listed bitcoin miners. Its flagship is the Corsicana, Texas data center — a 1-gigawatt mining campus that became fully operational in 2024. CEO Jason Les pursues a partial-hodl policy (selling ~25-50% of monthly production for opex; retaining the rest).

Riot's 2024-2025 strategic moves include the failed hostile takeover attempt of Bitfarms (later settled), expansion into AI HPC partnerships, and aggressive ATM equity issuance to fund both treasury growth and capital expenditure. The Texas operating model — direct ERCOT power-market participation, demand-response economics, and cheap hashrate — is the structural moat.

Block, Inc.

Block, Inc. (company:block-inc), founded by Jack Dorsey, holds roughly 8,000 BTC across corporate treasury and operational reserves for its Cash App bitcoin product. Dorsey is one of the most outspoken bitcoin maximalists among major-tech CEOs and has aligned much of Block's product roadmap (Bitkey self-custody hardware wallet, Proto bitcoin mining hardware/software, Cash App Bitcoin) around bitcoin specifically.

Block's bitcoin position is smaller than Strategy's but operationally important: Cash App Bitcoin is one of the largest US retail bitcoin distribution channels, and Bitkey is the most distributed mainstream hardware wallet. The corporate-treasury stake is therefore a strategic alignment marker, not the financial centerpiece.

Hut 8

Hut 8 Corp (company:hut-8) — merged with US Bitcoin Corp in 2023 to form Hut 8 Corp — holds approximately 10,000 BTC and is one of the most diversified miners by revenue mix. Under CEO Asher Genoot, Hut 8 has aggressively pivoted into AI HPC compute (its Highrise AI subsidiary), data-center colocation, and managed services. The bitcoin treasury continues to accumulate from retained mining production.

Hut 8 is unique in the miner cohort for explicitly diversifying revenue away from pure-bitcoin exposure — a hedge against the post-halving margin compression that hit the cohort in 2024-2025.

CleanSpark

CleanSpark, Inc. (company:cleanspark) holds ~10,000 BTC and operates one of the lowest-cost mining fleets in North America (concentrated in Georgia and other low-power-cost regions). Under CEO Zach Bradford the firm has pursued a hybrid hodl/sell strategy, retaining a significant portion of monthly production while selling enough to fund operating expenses.

CleanSpark's competitive advantage is fleet efficiency — average J/TH (joules per terahash, the energy-efficiency metric for ASICs) below 25, compared to the industry average of ~30. This translates directly into better post-halving economics.

Coinbase Global

Coinbase Global (COIN) — the largest US-licensed crypto exchange — holds approximately 9,000 BTC of proprietary treasury, separate from customer custody. Coinbase is also the qualified custodian for the BlackRock IBIT spot bitcoin ETF and several other ETFs, giving it indirect operational exposure to hundreds of thousands of additional BTC.

Coinbase achieved S&P 500 inclusion in 2025, the first crypto-native US-listed company to do so, marking institutional acceptance of crypto-native business models. Its bitcoin treasury is small relative to revenue but symbolically important.

Galaxy Digital

Galaxy Digital (GLXY), founded by Mike Novogratz, holds ~15,000 BTC and operates a diversified crypto investment-banking, trading, and asset-management platform. Galaxy Asset Management runs spot bitcoin and ethereum ETFs jointly with Invesco (BTCO, QETH); Galaxy Research publishes the widely-cited Crypto Outlook 2025 and quarterly state-of-market reports. The firm completed its US listing in 2025 after years on TSX.

Metaplanet (Japan)

Metaplanet Inc. (3350.JP) is Asia's most prominent bitcoin treasury company. Originally a Tokyo-listed hotel and real-estate operator, it pivoted to a bitcoin-treasury thesis in April 2024 (event:metaplanet-2024-btc-pivot) under CEO Simon Gerovich, who was previously a Goldman Sachs trader. The firm has used Japan-specific equity instruments (moving-strike convertible bonds, stock-acquisition rights) plus standard equity raises to fund accumulation.

By April 2026 Metaplanet holds approximately 10,000 BTC, with stated targets to reach 21,000 BTC by 2026 year-end and longer-term ambitions reaching 210,000 BTC in the early 2030s. Its share price rose more than 4,000% from the pivot announcement through 2025, making it the best-performing Tokyo Stock Exchange listing in that period and one of the most popular names in Japanese retail brokerage accounts (especially under NISA tax-advantaged accounts that allow tax-free capital gains on listed equities).

Metaplanet is the prototype of the international Strategy copycat: same playbook (premium-to-NAV math, accretive issuance, public BTC roadmap, social-media-savvy CEO), localized to Japanese capital markets. It has inspired similar moves in Singapore (Genius Group), the UK (Smarter Web Company), and Latin America.

Twenty One Capital

Twenty One Capital, Inc. is a 2025 special-purpose vehicle structured to combine a SPAC, sponsor capital from Tether, sponsor capital from SoftBank Vision Fund, sponsor capital from Cantor Fitzgerald, and operating leadership from Jack Mallers (CEO of Strike, the bitcoin payments company). Announced on April 23, 2025, the vehicle targets a $3B capital base on day one, with all proceeds earmarked for bitcoin purchases.

The structure — backed by some of the most prominent names in the bitcoin and TradFi ecosystem — is a deliberate Strategy clone built on a fresh balance sheet. By starting without legacy software-business overhang, Twenty One Capital aims to be a "purer" bitcoin proxy than MSTR. The vehicle is expected to merge with a SPAC and list on US markets in 2025-2026.

Howard Lutnick (Cantor Fitzgerald, US Commerce Secretary) has been described as a key architect; the involvement of SoftBank's Masayoshi Son and Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has drawn significant attention.

Cipher Mining, Bitfarms, IREN, Argo

The next tier of public bitcoin miners contributes meaningfully to the corporate-BTC total:

• Cipher Mining (CIFR) — Texas-focused miner with ~3,000 BTC; AI HPC pivot.
• Bitfarms (BITF) — Argentina, Paraguay and Canada operations; ~1,200 BTC.
• IREN/Iris Energy (IREN) — renewable-powered Australian-domiciled miner; ~2,000 BTC; aggressive AI HPC pivot.
• Argo Blockchain (ARBK / AIM-listed) — UK-listed miner; ~600 BTC; smaller scale.

Each follows a similar miner-with-partial-hodl playbook: retain a portion of mined BTC, sell the remainder for opex, and pursue secondary revenue streams (AI compute, hosting) to offset post-halving margin pressure.

Smaller treasury copycats

The long tail of 2024-2025 bitcoin treasury copycats is large and growing:

• Semler Scientific — US-listed healthcare diagnostics company that pivoted to a bitcoin treasury thesis in May 2024 under chairman Eric Semler. Holds ~5,000 BTC and uses ATM equity issuance to fund accumulation. Often described as "small-cap MSTR."
• Smarter Web Company UK — LSE-listed website-design firm that pivoted to bitcoin treasury in 2025 under CEO Andrew Webley; ~1,000 BTC.
• Genius Group Singapore (GNS) — education-tech holding co with a bitcoin allocation policy; ~440 BTC.
• Cango Inc. (CANG) — Chinese-domiciled, NYSE-listed company that pivoted from auto-financing to bitcoin mining and treasury in 2024; ~3,800 BTC.
• Bitcoin Magazine (BTCM) — David Bailey's bitcoin-native media + advisory firm, holds ~1,500 BTC; private.
• Bitcoin Standard Corp. — UK listing 2025 with Adam Back advisory; nascent.
• Fold Holdings (FLD) — bitcoin-rewards consumer fintech, reverse-merged via SPAC 2025; ~1,300 BTC.
• BTCS Inc. (BTCS) — small-cap NASDAQ-listed BTC accumulator; ~250 BTC.

These names are extremely heterogeneous in quality, governance and execution risk. Several have premium-to-NAV ratios above 5x and very thin free-floats, making them volatile and difficult to size as institutional positions.

The macro context: sovereign and quasi-sovereign bitcoin holdings

The corporate bitcoin treasury landscape in 2026 cannot be understood in isolation from the parallel emergence of sovereign and quasi-sovereign bitcoin holdings:

• United States — Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: Established by Trump executive order March 6, 2025, consolidating ~200,000 BTC of seized assets into a permanent reserve. Treasury directed not to sell and to study budget-neutral additions.
• El Salvador: Holds ~6,000 BTC purchased over multiple years; required by IMF deal to reform the Bitcoin Law in 2025 (event:el-salvador-imf-btc-reform) but retained the treasury position.
• Bhutan: Operates sovereign mining via Druk Holding & Investments; estimated holdings 10K-15K BTC, though mining halted in 2025 due to operational issues (event:bhutan-btc-mining-halt).
• Czech National Bank: Approved a study of bitcoin reserves in 2025 (event:czech-nb-btc-proposal). Not yet a holder, but the first major EU central bank to formally study allocation.
• Norway sovereign wealth fund (NBIM): Indirectly holds bitcoin via equity stakes in MARA, MicroStrategy, Coinbase and other treasury companies — making Norway one of the largest indirect sovereign bitcoin holders.
• Tether: Private but disclosed ~$96,000 BTC in reserves, equivalent to a small sovereign holding. Material to the corporate-treasury cohort because Tether is a backer of Twenty One Capital.

These sovereign and quasi-sovereign holdings collectively represent another ~250K-300K BTC and are expected to grow if the Czech precedent is followed by other central banks.

Trump Media (TMTG) bitcoin plans

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG, NASDAQ: DJT), the parent company of Truth Social, announced plans in 2025 to launch a bitcoin treasury allocation and to integrate bitcoin and crypto-native payments into the Truth Social platform. By April 2026, TMTG had filed for several crypto-related ETFs through its TMTG Capital subsidiary and announced an explicit treasury policy targeting low-single-digit-percentage allocation of corporate cash to bitcoin. The exact holdings remain limited (estimates around 1,500-3,000 BTC) but the political alignment with the Trump administration's pro-bitcoin executive orders makes TMTG a notable name.

Risks and criticism

Bitcoin treasury companies face risks that go beyond pure bitcoin price exposure:

1) Premium-to-NAV decay

Many treasury companies trade at significant premiums to their net BTC value, sometimes 2-5x. If the broader cycle turns bearish, premium compression can drive equity returns sharply below pure BTC returns. This is the mechanism by which "leveraged proxy" wrappers underperform in drawdowns.

2) Reflexivity and dilution

The whole treasury-company model depends on accretive equity issuance — which only works while shares trade at premium-to-NAV. If multiple companies issue equity simultaneously into a flat or weak BTC market, premiums compress, and the model self-defeats. Critics like Peter Schiff publicly describe parts of this complex (especially newer preferred-stock structures) as "Ponzi-like."

3) Refinancing and solvency risk

Convertible-note maturities, preferred-stock dividends and operating-expense burn require continued capital-markets access. A simultaneous bitcoin drawdown plus credit-market freeze (similar to 2022) could force forced sales or restructurings. The 2022 cycle saw smaller treasury copycats and over-leveraged miners go bankrupt; the next bear market will test the larger cohort.

4) Concentration and key-person risk

Many treasury companies are intimately associated with a charismatic founder (Saylor at Strategy, Dorsey at Block, Mallers at Twenty One). Departure or governance change creates narrative risk.

5) Regulatory and tax risk

Bitcoin holdings of this size attract regulatory scrutiny: SEC disclosure rules, FASB accounting standards, banking-sector restrictions on credit secured by crypto, and possible international tax-cooperation initiatives all create ongoing risk surface.

6) Operational risk for miners

Miner-archetype treasury companies face additional risks: ASIC depreciation (4-year half-lives), electricity-price volatility, hashrate competition, post-halving block-reward economics. These compound the BTC price risk.

7) Premium ETF substitution

The launch of pure-spot bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 (and now also corporate-treasury equity ETFs like OWNB) has reduced the "scarcity premium" historically attached to MSTR and other bitcoin proxies. Investors who previously had no other access now have many options. This structural force compresses premiums over time.

How to invest in bitcoin treasury companies

Practical step-by-step approach:

1. Decide on bitcoin allocation size. Choose your overall BTC sleeve (typical 1-5% of portfolio).
2. Choose your wrapper mix. Consider blending: spot ETF (clean exposure) + MSTR (leveraged proxy) + a basket of miners or treasury ETF (OWNB). Each adds diversification but also management/operational risk.
3. Compare premium-to-NAV. Calculate (market cap) / (BTC × spot price) for each candidate. Prefer names trading 1.0x-1.8x NAV; be cautious above 3x.
4. Read the disclosures. SEC 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K filings spell out treasury policy, debt schedule, and risk factors. International filings (Tokyo Stock Exchange for Metaplanet, LSE for Smarter Web, ASX for IREN) require equivalent due diligence.
5. Diversify the basket. Consider OWNB for one-click diversified exposure rather than single-name concentration.
6. Monitor cap-stack changes. Convertible-note maturities, ATM extensions, preferred-stock issuances all affect dilution math. Use SEC EDGAR alerts.
7. Watch the macro. Bitcoin price, Strategic Bitcoin Reserve policy, Czech NB and other sovereign developments, and the credit cycle (rates, BBB spreads) all shape treasury-company economics.

Use cases / examples

Five concrete portfolio examples:

1. Diversified institutional bitcoin sleeve. 60% spot BTC ETF (IBIT/FBTC) + 25% MSTR + 15% OWNB. Clean exposure dominant, leveraged proxy minority, equity diversifier completes.
2. Bitcoin maximalist with leverage tilt. 50% self-custody BTC + 40% MSTR + 10% Metaplanet ADR. Concentrated bullish bet.
3. Yield-seeking fixed-income bitcoin. 100% in Strategy STRF preferred. Dividend-style income with BTC sensitivity but no equity vol.
4. Mining-cohort thematic. Equal-weight basket of MARA, RIOT, CLSK, HUT. Operational beta to bitcoin price; energy-cost hedge.
5. Tactical premium-rotation strategy. Long MSTR when premium <1.5x NAV; rotate to spot ETF when premium >2.5x. Active relative-value play.

Research and reports

• Bernstein BTC Treasury Company Analysis — sell-side framework for valuing treasury companies.
• a16z State of Crypto 2025 — corporate-adoption trends.
• Galaxy Digital Crypto Outlook 2025 — institutional-investor framing.
• CryptoQuant Bitcoin On-Chain Annual Review 2024 — on-chain data on accumulation cohorts.
• BIS Working Paper 1013 — institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies, treasury case studies.
• BIS Working Paper 1049 — retail adoption database; complements treasury analysis.
• Fidelity Digital Assets 2025 Research — corporate-treasury policy benchmarks.
• Coinbase Institutional Outlook 2026 — Coinbase Research outlook.
• Bitwise Crypto Market Review 2026 — discusses OWNB ETF construction.

FAQ

How many bitcoin do public companies hold in total?

As of April 2026, publicly-traded companies collectively hold roughly 1.0-1.2 million BTC, or about 5-6% of the total 21M cap. Strategy alone accounts for more than half of that. The next-largest cohort is bitcoin miners (MARA, Riot, CleanSpark, Hut 8, Cipher, Bitfarms, Iris Energy, Argo) who together hold around 100K-120K BTC. The remainder is split between treasury-pivot companies (Tesla, Block, Coinbase, Galaxy, Semler), Asian copycats (Metaplanet), SPAC vehicles (Twenty One Capital), and a long tail of smaller imitators including Smarter Web Company UK, Genius Group Singapore and Cango.

Which is the largest corporate bitcoin holder?

Strategy Inc. (formerly MicroStrategy, ticker MSTR) is the largest corporate bitcoin holder by an order of magnitude, with approximately 700,000 BTC as of April 2026. The next four largest corporate holders combined — MARA Holdings (~44K), Riot Platforms (~17K), Galaxy Digital (~15K), Tesla (~11K) — total only about 87K BTC. Strategy is so large that it is also a top-five holder of any kind globally, behind only the original Satoshi-era addresses, the BlackRock IBIT ETF, the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and certain large exchanges' commingled hot/cold wallets.

What is the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve?

The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) is a US federal stockpile of bitcoin established by executive order signed by President Donald Trump on March 6, 2025. The SBR consolidates approximately 200,000 BTC seized in criminal forfeitures (including Bitfinex 2016 hack proceeds, Silk Road, and various darknet cases) into a permanent reserve. The order also creates a separate Digital Asset Stockpile for non-bitcoin assets. The Treasury is directed to retain the BTC indefinitely and study budget-neutral acquisition strategies. Although not technically a "company," the SBR is now the single largest US-government bitcoin holding and a structural source of supply removal.

How does Metaplanet compare to Strategy?

Metaplanet is a Tokyo-listed company (3350.JP) that pivoted from a hotel and real-estate business to a bitcoin-treasury thesis in April 2024 under CEO Simon Gerovich. By April 2026 it holds roughly 10,000 BTC and is widely described as "Asia's MSTR." Metaplanet uses bond issuances, equity raises and stock-acquisition rights (Japan-specific instruments) to fund accumulation, mirroring Strategy's playbook on a much smaller balance sheet. Its share price rose 4,000%+ from the pivot announcement through 2025, reflecting the enthusiasm for Asian bitcoin proxies among Japanese retail investors operating under NISA tax-advantaged accounts.

Who is behind Twenty One Capital?

Twenty One Capital is a 2025 special-purpose vehicle backed by Tether, SoftBank's Vision Fund, Cantor Fitzgerald, and bitcoin entrepreneur Jack Mallers (CEO of Strike). Announced April 23, 2025, it targets a $3B initial capitalization explicitly to mimic Strategy's playbook on a fresh balance sheet — i.e., to acquire bitcoin using equity capital and serve as a public-market BTC proxy. The vehicle is structured to merge with a SPAC and list on US markets. Howard Lutnick (Cantor Fitzgerald, US Commerce Secretary in the Trump administration) was a key architect.

Why are bitcoin miners considered treasury companies?

Most major bitcoin miners (MARA, Riot, CleanSpark, Hut 8, Cipher, Bitfarms, Iris Energy/IREN) operate under a "full-hodl" or "majority-hodl" treasury policy: they retain most or all bitcoin produced by mining operations rather than selling it for operating cash. MARA Holdings under CEO Fred Thiel adopted an explicit "Full HODL" policy in 2024, retaining 100% of mined production. This converts mining companies into hybrid operating-business + bitcoin-treasury vehicles, accumulating BTC organically through hashrate rather than through capital-markets purchases.

Should I invest in MSTR or a spot bitcoin ETF?

It depends on your goals. Spot ETFs (IBIT, FBTC, BITB) give you direct 1:1 bitcoin exposure with low fees and no operational complexity. MSTR gives you ~1.5x-2.5x leveraged bitcoin exposure plus an option-like premium that can outperform spot in bull markets but underperform sharply in bear markets. Bitcoin miners (MARA, RIOT, CLSK) add operational and energy-cost risk. Treasury copycats (Metaplanet, Semler, Twenty One Capital) add execution risk. Diversification across two or three of these wrappers, sized smaller than pure spot exposure, is a common institutional approach.

Are there bitcoin treasury ETFs?

Yes. The Bitwise Bitcoin Standard Corporations ETF (OWNB) launched in early 2025 to provide diversified equity exposure to companies with significant bitcoin holdings. The ETF's holdings include Strategy, MARA, Riot, Hut 8, Coinbase, Block, Galaxy, Semler, Metaplanet ADR, and other named treasury-strategy companies. Other issuers (VanEck, Roundhill, Defiance) have filed for similar bitcoin-equity strategy ETFs. These products differ from spot bitcoin ETFs because they hold equities, not BTC directly, and so include corporate-execution, leverage, and management risk on top of bitcoin price exposure.

What is the OWNB Bitcoin Standard Corporations ETF?

OWNB is the Bitwise Bitcoin Standard Corporations ETF, a US-listed exchange-traded fund that holds equities of public companies with significant bitcoin treasury allocations. The fund is index-driven, weighted by a combination of BTC holdings and market cap, and rebalanced quarterly. It launched in early 2025 and has grown rapidly as institutional investors seek diversified exposure to the corporate-bitcoin theme without picking a single name. Top holdings include Strategy, MARA, Riot, Hut 8, Tesla, and Coinbase. Note OWNB is an equity ETF, not a spot BTC ETF.

What is the risk if many of these companies issue equity to buy BTC at the same time?

A coordinated wave of corporate bitcoin issuance is a real risk if the bitcoin price is flat or declining: each company sells equity to buy BTC, but if many do so simultaneously, share-price premiums collapse and the model breaks. The mechanism only works while issuance is "accretive" — i.e., done at premium-to-NAV. Critics like Peter Schiff argue the entire treasury-company complex is a self-referential loop: bitcoin price drives MSTR-style premiums, which drives more issuance, which drives more buying. A sustained bear market would expose how much of the cohort is actually leveraged dilution rather than genuine value creation.

Glossary

• Bitcoin treasury company: Public firm that has formally allocated meaningful corporate cash to BTC as a primary or secondary reserve.
• Full HODL: Treasury policy of retaining all mined or purchased bitcoin without selling.
• Premium-to-NAV: Market cap divided by (BTC × spot price); the equity multiplier above pure asset value.
• BTC Yield: Strategy's KPI tracking percentage growth in BTC-per-share over time.
• Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR): US federal BTC stockpile created by Trump EO March 6, 2025.
• ATM (At-the-Market) offering: Continuous equity-issuance program selling new shares directly into the open market.
• Convertible note: Debt instrument that converts into common shares above a strike price.
• STRK / STRF / STRD / STRC: Strategy's family of perpetual preferred stocks.
• Hashrate: Total computing power of bitcoin miners; key competitive metric for the miner cohort.
• J/TH (Joules per Terahash): ASIC energy-efficiency metric; lower is better.
• NISA: Japanese tax-advantaged retail brokerage account; key driver of Metaplanet retail demand.
• SPAC: Special-Purpose Acquisition Company; reverse-merger vehicle for going public; used by Twenty One Capital and Fold.

Related reading (internal links)

• Strategy (MSTR) Complete Guide
• What is Bitcoin? 2026 Guide
• Bitcoin Halving 2024-2028 Guide
• Best Bitcoin & Ethereum ETFs 2026
• Top Crypto VCs in 2026
• Stablecoins Explained 2026
• Real World Asset Tokenization 2026

Sources and further reading

• SEC EDGAR company search — https://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch
• BitcoinTreasuries.net (community-maintained tracker) — https://www.bitcointreasuries.net/
• White House Strategic Bitcoin Reserve EO — https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/establishment-of-the-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-and-united-states-digital-asset-stockpile/
• Strategy bitcoin purchases ledger — https://strategy.com/purchases
• Metaplanet investor relations — https://www.metaplanet.jp/en
• MARA Holdings investor relations — https://www.mara.com/
• Riot Platforms investor relations — https://www.riotplatforms.com/
• CleanSpark investor relations — https://investors.cleanspark.com/
• Hut 8 investor relations — https://hut8.com/investor-relations
• Block, Inc. SEC filings — https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=Block,%20Inc.
• BIS Working Paper 1013 — https://www.bis.org/publ/work1013.htm
• BIS Working Paper 1049 — https://www.bis.org/publ/work1049.htm
• Czech National Bank — https://www.cnb.cz/en/
• IMF Article IV consultations (El Salvador) — https://www.imf.org/en/Countries/SLV
• Galaxy Research — https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/
• Bitwise OWNB fund page — https://bitwiseinvestments.com/

About the author

DeFi Intel Research is an independent crypto-market research desk covering MEV, market microstructure, and corporate bitcoin adoption. We maintain a real-time knowledge graph of public-company bitcoin treasury filings and update this tracker as new disclosures arrive. We hold no positions in the companies listed when this article was last updated.

Last updated: 2026-04-26