Companies holding bitcoin: who owns the most and why it matters

Companies holding bitcoin keep it on the balance sheet as a reserve asset in place of some of their cash. Per CoinGecko data as of October 19, 2026, 180 public companies own 1,302,063 BTC, or 6.2% of the 21 million coins that will ever exist. Two thirds of that pile belongs to one name: Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) held 848,250 BTC as of October 11, 2026, according to its Form 8-K. The rest is spread across Japan's Metaplanet, Twenty One Capital, miners such as MARA and dozens of smaller "bitcoin treasury companies" copying the Strategy playbook with mixed results.

Below: why companies buy bitcoin, how they pay for it, what mNAV means, and why some treasuries started selling coins in 2026.

Which public companies hold the most bitcoin

Corporate bitcoin holdings look like a pyramid with a very wide base and a single peak. Our dashboard's top six as of October 19, 2026 (source: CoinGecko):

The share-of-supply column is our own calculation from the same figures. Strategy alone accounts for 65% of all corporate holdings; the second and third names combined hold almost ten times less. Most of the remaining 174 companies own a few hundred to a few thousand coins. The live list sits in the "Bitcoin in corporate treasuries" block of our daily summary.

One caveat about trackers: the company count and the BTC total differ from site to site, because each one decides differently whether to include exchanges, miners and private funds, and each updates with its own lag. For any specific company, the filings are more reliable: US companies disclose purchases in Form 8-K on the SEC website, Japanese companies through the Tokyo Stock Exchange's TDnet system.

How Strategy became the largest holder

It started on August 11, 2020, when MicroStrategy, a business intelligence software vendor, announced it had bought 21,454 BTC for $250 million including fees and adopted bitcoin as its "primary treasury reserve asset." The filing cited the pandemic, quantitative easing and the risk of fiat currencies losing real value. CEO Michael Saylor called the purchase part of the company's "new capital allocation strategy."

From there the company bought almost continuously, raising the money from the market: convertible notes, at-the-market (ATM) sales of common stock and, since 2025, several series of perpetual preferred stock (STRK, STRF, STRC, STRD) paying fixed dividends. By October 11, 2026, per the October 12 Form 8-K, the aggregate purchase price of its 848,250 BTC was $64.00 billion, an average of $75,444 per coin.

The scale of the obligations shows up in the Q2 2026 results: the principal amount of convertible debt was reduced from $8.21 billion to $6.71 billion, the preferred stock carries a liquidation preference of $15.46 billion, and preferred dividends for the quarter came to $400.7 million. In the same quarter the price drop produced an unrealized loss on digital assets of $8.32 billion and a net loss of $8.22 billion. That is how fair value accounting works: gains and losses hit the income statement immediately, more on that below.

Why companies buy bitcoin at all

Holders have different motives, and it matters before you compare them in a single table.

1. A reserve instead of cash. The original logic at Strategy and Tesla: part of the cash pile sits in an asset that management believes preserves value better than dollars in a bank account. Tesla, per its quarterly report, held 11,509 BTC as of March 31, 2026, bought for $386 million; their fair value on that date was $786 million, down from $1,008 million at the end of 2025.
2. Bitcoin as the business itself. This is the bitcoin treasury company model: the firm raises capital and buys coins, and investors buy its shares as "leveraged bitcoin." Strategy, Metaplanet, Twenty One Capital and Strive exist to grow BTC per share.
3. A by-product of mining. MARA and other miners produce bitcoin and decide whether to sell it for operating costs or keep it; their stack depends on power prices and debt as much as on conviction.
4. Operational necessity. Exchanges and payment firms hold coins for clients and settlement; trackers sometimes list them, although that is not a treasury reserve.

Twenty One Capital is the second model in its purest form: the company began trading on the NYSE under the ticker XXI on December 9, 2025, holds more than 43,500 BTC, and in May 2026 Tether bought out SoftBank's stake to become the majority owner, according to the company's announcement.

What mNAV is and why the premium is everything

The key metric for a bitcoin treasury company is mNAV, market capitalization divided by the market value of the bitcoin it holds. As BitcoinTreasuries explains, a company with 10,000 BTC worth $1.2 billion and a $1.5 billion market cap has an mNAV of 1.25: investors pay 25% more than the coins are worth. With a $1 billion market cap the mNAV is 0.83, and the market values the company below its own stack.

The premium is the fuel of the model. As long as the shares trade above the value of the coins, the company can sell new shares and buy more bitcoin with the proceeds than it diluted away from existing holders, so BTC per share rises. Strategy calls that figure BTC Yield; per its Q2 report, it stood at 4.5% for 2026 through July 26.

When the premium disappears, the machine stalls: selling shares below the value of the coins reduces BTC per share, and the only moves left are buying back stock or retiring debt. That is exactly what the week of October 5⁠–⁠11, 2026 showed. Strategy bought just 250 BTC for $21.5 million but spent $192.4 million repurchasing its STRC preferred stock (we covered that filing). Then on October 15 MSCI adopted a rule on "non-operating companies" that could push Strategy out of its indexes after November 30.

Why treasuries started selling in 2026

By mid-2026 bitcoin had fallen roughly in half from its $126,080 peak, which CoinGecko dates to October 6, 2025, and the model went through its first stress test. On July 24, 2026 CoinDesk compiled the cases: London-listed Satsuma Technology voted to sell all 668 BTC and delist, Smarter Web Company sold 178 BTC to repay a convertible instrument, Sequans Communications sold 1,025 BTC and then nearly 80% of what was left to repay convertible debt, and Nakamoto sold about 284 BTC for working capital. Strategy sold about 3,620 BTC over several weeks to top up its dollar reserve. Michael Saylor told the outlet: "We will probably sell some Bitcoin to fund a dividend just to inoculate the market," adding that it did not signal a broad exit.

Strategy's sales are visible in its filings: for July 27 to August 2, 2026 the company sold 1,638 BTC at an average $63,957 for $104.73 million, of which $52.4 million funded preferred dividends and $52.3 million funded STRC repurchases.

Metaplanet chose a different path. In Q3 2026, per CoinDesk, the company sold 10,000 BTC at an average $78,925 (about $789.2 million) and then bought 11,000 BTC at an average $86,246 (about $948.7 million). The stack grew to 44,000 BTC as of September 30, but the average cost of the whole position, $98,454, stayed above the market. In October the company issued ¥52 billion of zero-coupon convertible bonds to repay part of its bitcoin-backed loans and buy back shares.

The common thread: the more debt and mandatory dividends a company carries, the more likely it is to sell coins rather than add to them when the price falls.

What it looks like on October 19, 2026

Per our data at 8:00 UTC on October 19, 2026, bitcoin traded near $82,682, 34% below its peak. Against Strategy's average cost of $75,444 the position was up about 9.6%; Metaplanet's, at an average of $98,454, was down about 16%; Tesla's, at roughly $33,500 per coin ($386 million over 11,509 BTC), was up more than twofold. All three are our own calculations from the filings cited above.

Corporate holdings of 1.30 million BTC were worth about $107.7 billion on October 19 per CoinGecko. For comparison, US spot bitcoin ETFs, as we wrote, held $104.91 billion in assets as of October 8, so companies and funds are holders of similar size, but the corporate side is concentrated in one name. The on-chain picture was calm: MVRV stood at 1.52 on October 18 and our market temperature gauge read 38 out of 100; what those mean is explained in our guide to cycle indicators.

How bitcoin is accounted for

Before 2025, US companies carried bitcoin as an indefinite-lived intangible asset: the purchase price could only be written down when the price fell, never written back up when it recovered. Book values were systematically understated and sales had to be explained separately. FASB's ASU 2023⁠–⁠08, per KPMG's summary, requires in-scope crypto assets to be measured at fair value with changes recorded in net income each reporting period; it is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024, so from 2025 for calendar-year companies.

The practical consequence for anyone reading the reports: a bitcoin treasury's quarterly profit or loss is now driven almost entirely by the coin's price on the last day of the quarter. Strategy's $8.22 billion net loss for Q2 2026 is a revaluation, not a sale; if the price reverses, the same line will show a profit.

Common mistakes

• Ranking companies by BTC count alone. A 30,000-coin stack with debt equal to half its value is riskier than 11,000 coins with no debt, as at Tesla. Look at debt, preferred dividends and mNAV.
• Treating treasury stocks as a bitcoin substitute. A share carries extra risks: dilution, index exclusion, debt service costs. When mNAV drops below 1, the stock can fall harder than the coin.
• Trusting a single tracker number without a date. Strategy's holdings changed several times in October 2026 alone; always look for the "as of" date and the 8-K.
• Confusing a corporate purchase with fresh money. If a company bought coins with proceeds from a share sale, shareholder capital went into bitcoin; if it borrowed, debt went in, and it has to be repaid one day.

Frequently asked questions

How much bitcoin does Strategy own? Per the Form 8-K dated October 12, 2026: 848,250 BTC as of October 11, aggregate purchase price $64.00 billion, average $75,444.

How much bitcoin do public companies hold in total? Per CoinGecko on October 19, 2026: 1,302,063 BTC across 180 companies, 6.2% of the 21 million supply. Other trackers differ because of methodology.

Could Strategy go bust and crash bitcoin? Its convertible debt ($6.71 billion as of June 30, 2026) is not secured by the coins, and until maturity the company can pay dividends and coupons from its dollar reserve ($4.88 billion as of October 11). The forced-selling risk is higher at companies with bitcoin-collateralized loans, as Metaplanet was before its refinancing.

Where can I track purchases? Form 8-K filings on the SEC website for US companies, TDnet for Japanese ones, and the aggregated list in the treasuries block of our daily summary and the bitcoin page.

This is not investment advice.