Public companies collectively hold 1.16 million BTC and 6.5 million ETH on their balance sheets as of April 2026. The corporate crypto treasury trade — once pitched as broadening institutional ownership — has consolidated into two firms: Strategy Inc. (formerly MicroStrategy) controls 76% of all ...
"We believe ETH beating gold by 2,743 basis points demonstrates ETH is the wartime store of value." — Tom Lee, Chairman, Bitmine Immersion Technologies
Public companies collectively hold 1.16 million BTC and 6.5 million ETH on their balance sheets as of April 2026. The corporate crypto treasury trade — once pitched as broadening institutional ownership — has consolidated into two firms: Strategy Inc. (formerly MicroStrategy) controls 76% of all publicly-held corporate bitcoin, while Bitmine Immersion Technologies holds 4.87 million ETH, or 4.04% of total ether supply.
The divergence is stark. Strategy purchased approximately 45,000 BTC in the past 30 days. Every other treasury company combined bought roughly 1,000 BTC in the same period — a 99% decline from the August 2025 peak of 69,000 BTC, according to CryptoQuant data. On the ether side, Bitmine is the last large-scale buyer, adding 101,627 ETH ($230 million) in its largest weekly purchase of 2026 while other digital asset treasuries pull back.
What was once a broad corporate movement — 54 active treasury buyers at its 2025 peak — has narrowed to a two-firm duopoly, each running leveraged accumulation strategies funded by continuous capital raises. The economic implications extend beyond the firms themselves: Strategy's purchases now represent nearly all marginal corporate demand for bitcoin, creating a single point of fragility in an asset class whose investment thesis depends on decentralized ownership.
Strategy holds 815,061 BTC as of April 20, 2026, acquired for approximately $59.02 billion at an average cost basis of $75,577 per coin. The firm's April 20 purchase of 34,164 BTC for $2.54 billion was its third-largest single acquisition on record.
The top five corporate bitcoin holders by BTC quantity:
| Company | BTC Holdings | Approx. Value | |---------|-------------|---------------| | Strategy (MSTR) | 815,061 | $61.1B | | Twenty One Capital (XXI) | 43,514 | $3.3B | | Metaplanet (3350.T) | 40,177 | $3.0B | | MARA Holdings (MARA) | 38,689 | $2.9B | | Galaxy Digital (GLXY) | 25,723 | $1.9B |
Strategy's share of total corporate bitcoin has grown from approximately 40% in early 2025 to 76% in April 2026. The firm targets 1 million BTC by year-end 2026, implying roughly 185,000 BTC of additional purchases — approximately $13.9 billion at current prices.
Metaplanet, the third-largest holder, added 5,075 BTC in Q1 2026 at an average price of $79,898. The Tokyo-listed firm targets 100,000 BTC by year-end 2026. Twenty One Capital debuted on the NYSE in December 2025 with 43,500 BTC but has not disclosed significant additional purchases since.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) holds 4.87 million ETH — 4.04% of total ether supply — worth approximately $10.7 billion. The firm's stated target is 5% of total supply, or approximately 6 million ETH, by mid-summer 2026.
Key metrics for Bitmine's ETH treasury:
Bitmine's transformation from a bitcoin mining operation to an Ethereum treasury vehicle occurred over approximately 18 months. The firm doubled its share count in six months and raised more than $10 billion to fund ETH accumulation. Its stock traded at $22.92 as of April 19, down from a 52-week high of $161.00.
Chairman Tom Lee's thesis rests on two catalysts: institutional tokenization of real-world assets on Ethereum, and demand from agentic AI systems requiring "public and neutral blockchains." Lee projects ETH at $62,500 by 2030, requiring the ETH/BTC ratio to expand from 0.032 to 0.25 — a 7.8x move against bitcoin.
CryptoQuant data shows the number of active corporate treasury buyers dropped from 54 companies in August 2025 to approximately 13 in March 2026 — a 76% decline. Non-Strategy bitcoin purchases collapsed from 69,000 BTC monthly to approximately 1,000 BTC.
MARA Holdings, previously the second-largest corporate bitcoin holder, reversed course entirely. Between March 4 and March 25, 2026, the firm sold 15,133 BTC for $1.1 billion at an average of $65,300 per coin — below its estimated cost basis of $80,900. MARA used proceeds to retire $1.0 billion in convertible notes at an $88.1 million discount, then cut 15% of its workforce. The firm signaled further BTC sales "from time to time" to fund a pivot toward AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.
Multiple factors drove the pullback:
Strategy and Bitmine share a common playbook: issue equity at a premium to NAV, use proceeds to buy crypto, and report accumulation as a proprietary yield metric.
Strategy's capital structure:
In the first two weeks of April 2026, Strategy acquired 18,798 BTC through ATM and preferred share sales. After adjusting for new share issuance, the net "BTC Gain" was 17,585 BTC — valued at $1.3 billion. The firm's BTC-per-share increased 9.5% year-to-date, compounding to approximately 37% annualized.
TD Cowen raised its MSTR price target to $385 from $350 on April 14, citing strong demand for the preferred shares. MSTR stock rose from $119 in early April to $168.28 on April 17.
Bitmine's capital structure:
The critical difference: Bitmine generates operating revenue from staking (approximately $11 million quarterly), while Strategy's software business — the original MicroStrategy analytics platform — generates diminishing revenue relative to its bitcoin position. Strategy is, as analysts have noted, "a leveraged BTC vehicle that also happens to sell enterprise analytics software."
Strategy's holdings returned to profitability on April 15 when bitcoin crossed $75,577 — its cost basis — for the first time since late January. At bitcoin's current price of approximately $75,242 (April 20), the position shows marginal profit on a mark-to-market basis.
Bitmine's economics are less favorable. The firm's $2,206 average cost on 4.87 million ETH compares to ether's current price of approximately $2,263, yielding slim unrealized gains. However, Q1 2026 saw a $3.8 billion net loss driven by derivatives and fair-value adjustments. BMNR shares are down approximately 86% from their 52-week high.
The economic value question is whether these firms generate sustainable returns for shareholders or simply provide leveraged crypto exposure with added dilution and management fees. Strategy's "BTC Yield" metric obscures the dilutive effect of continuous issuance. If bitcoin rises, shareholders benefit. If it falls, the leveraged structure amplifies losses while management continues to issue shares.
Strategy's dominance creates measurable systemic risk:
Single-buyer dependency. Strategy represented 98% of net corporate bitcoin buying in March 2026. If its funding mechanism breaks — preferred share demand falters, ATM capacity exhausts, or convertible notes mature without rollover — marginal corporate demand for bitcoin effectively goes to zero.
Forced liquidation scenario. Strategy carries approximately $7.2 billion in debt obligations. A sustained bitcoin decline below $50,000 would compress the firm's collateral ratios and potentially trigger covenant discussions, though the firm has no margin loans per its disclosures.
Market reflexivity. MSTR stock trades at a premium to NAV. That premium enables more share issuance, which enables more BTC purchases, which supports the price, which supports the premium. The cycle works in reverse.
Supply concentration. Strategy's 815,061 BTC represents 3.88% of total bitcoin supply (21 million cap) and approximately 5.3% of circulating supply. Adding Bitmine's 4.87 million ETH (4.04% of supply), two firms now control economically significant portions of two major networks' token supply.
On the Ethereum side, Bitmine's 4.04% ownership of ETH supply and 3.33 million staked tokens give it meaningful influence over the network's proof-of-stake consensus, though still below threshold levels for governance manipulation.
The corporate crypto treasury sector has bifurcated into two categories: Strategy and Bitmine are accelerating accumulation while nearly everyone else retreats. The economic model — issue equity at a premium, buy crypto, report yield on a per-share basis — functions only when stock prices trade above NAV and capital markets remain receptive to new issuance.
For the broader crypto market, the concentration carries contradictory implications. On one hand, consistent demand from two well-capitalized buyers provides a floor under prices. On the other, that demand is structurally fragile: it depends on continued access to cheap equity capital, receptive preferred-share investors, and favorable mark-to-market conditions. Remove any of these, and the largest source of corporate crypto demand disappears simultaneously.
The data suggests the 2025 narrative — that hundreds of companies would adopt bitcoin and ether treasury strategies — has not materialized at scale. Instead, the trade has consolidated into what amounts to two publicly-listed leveraged crypto funds, each controlling unprecedented portions of their respective network's token supply.