In April, Strategy overtook BlackRock, issuer of the world's largest Bitcoin exchange traded fund, Ibit,

to become the world's largest institutional holder of Bitcoin.

The milestone followed yet another enormous purchase.

Between April 13th and April 19th, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Strategy bought

$2.54 billion worth of Bitcoin, its largest acquisition since November 24.

The purchase brought the company's total holdings to 815,061 BTC, about 3.88% of Bitcoin's fixed 21 million supply, currently worth around $65 billion.

The only larger holder is thought to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the elusive founder of the cryptocurrency,

who disappeared 15 years ago. The funding for strategy's latest Bitcoin buying spree is not coming

from flooding the market with common shares or convertible debt, but mainly from what traders

affectionately call Stretch, the high-yield perpetual preferred stock the company has been

issuing under the symbol STRC. Michael Saylor, Strategy's chairman, has been touting Stretch as the critical underpinning of the

next phase of his Bitcoin Empire.

From 2020 through 2024, Strategy financed its Bitcoin binge largely by selling convertible

notes and issuing common stock.

It was a shrewd display of financial engineering while it lasted.

As Bitcoin climbed and investors bid strategy shares to eye-popping premiums over the value

of the company's underlying Bitcoin, Sailor could keep issuing more bonds convertible into stock

and selling common shares to hedge funds

and other investors anticipating a windfall. At points, the stock traded at two to three times

the value of Bitcoin on its balance sheet. But that model began to hit a wall when Bitcoin started falling

in early 2025. Convertible buyers wanted downside protection and income.

Common shareholders faced massive dilution.

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