Warren Buffett famously called Bitcoin “rat poison squared.” Now a company with over $3 billion in Bitcoin on its balance sheet wants to build the next Berkshire Hathaway, just without the stocks, bonds, or Oracle of Omaha’s blessing.
Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company, known by its planned ticker BSTR, launched in 2025 with 30,021 BTC and a thesis that passive Bitcoin accumulation is yesterday’s game. The company, co-founded by Blockstream CEO Adam Back and investor Sean Bill, wants to actively manage its Bitcoin holdings through capital markets operations, essentially treating BTC the way Berkshire treats cash-generating businesses.
How BSTR stacks up against the MicroStrategy playbook
The obvious comparison here is MicroStrategy, the company that turned itself into a de facto Bitcoin ETF under Michael Saylor’s leadership. Where MicroStrategy largely buys and holds, BSTR plans to deploy a full toolkit of financial strategies: options trading, arbitrage, and basis trades. The goal is not just to accumulate more Bitcoin, but to grow the amount of BTC attributable to each share over time.
Of BSTR’s initial 30,021 BTC stash, 25,000 BTC came from the founders themselves. The remaining 5,021 BTC was raised through what the company describes as the first US Bitcoin in-kind equity PIPE. The company has also lined up commitments of up to $1.5 billion in financing earmarked for additional Bitcoin acquisitions.
