Six years ago, a mid-cap enterprise software company made a bet that most of Wall Street thought was reckless. Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy bought 21,454 Bitcoin for roughly $250 million on August 11, 2020, declaring the asset its primary treasury reserve. The company, now simply called Strategy, holds approximately 840,447 BTC. That initial stake has grown nearly 12 times over.

To put the scale in perspective, Strategy now controls about 4% of Bitcoin’s hard-capped 21 million supply. No other public company comes close.

From software firm to Bitcoin vault

Strategy has leaned heavily on equity issuance and preferred stock offerings to fund its accumulation, essentially turning its stock into a Bitcoin acquisition vehicle.

By December 21, 2020, just a few months after that inaugural buy, the company had already amassed roughly 70,470 BTC.