Michael Saylor is once again challenging traditional financial conventions. By his own calculations, the total reserve capital of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) now exceeds that of any financial corporation in the S&P 500 index. The only exception is Warren Buffett's empire, Berkshire Hathaway. However, as I have found, this ambitious figure requires significant caveats.
The Path to the Record: From $250 Million to $72 Billion
On Strategy's balance sheet are 845,050 BTC. The company made its first tranche back in August 2020, spending $250 million on 21,454 coins. Today, these assets are valued at approximately $65.2 billion. Purchases resumed on August 31 after a ten-week pause, when 4,603 BTC worth $370 million were added to the portfolio.
Including $6.7 billion in dollar-denominated assets, total reserves reach $72.3 billion. Notably, CEO Phong Le cited a nearly identical figure on the same day—around $72 billion—confirming the consistency of the data. Le also emphasized the absence of net leverage: debt is almost entirely offset by the dollar cushion.
A Dubious Metric: Marketing or Reality?
The Total Reserve Capital metric, which Saylor loves to cite, ignores senior obligations—debts that must be repaid first. For banks, these include deposits, for example. As a result, JPMorgan's figure goes deep into negative territory—around -$1.35 trillion.
On the chart, Strategy stands at $66 billion, but the presentation from August 30 reveals a different picture: $21.5 billion in senior claims, of which $14.8 billion are preferred shares. Net reserves under this scenario amount to $50.7 billion. The $66 billion figure only emerges when preferred shares are excluded from the calculation, making the methodology highly selective. The ratio of reserves to senior obligations drops from 10.75 to 3.4 under this approach.
Market Reaction and Berkshire's Position
At the time of analysis, BTC is trading around $77,200, down 0.1% on the day. MSTR shares fell 2.1% to $122.3 on Wednesday, with the decline in the stock outpacing the cryptocurrency's movement—a typical sign of a weak market. Investors, however, reacted positively to the August increase in holdings, pushing the price to nearly $140 before the correction.
Berkshire's report from June 30 records $365.5 billion in cash and Treasury bonds—a verifiable and indisputable figure. However, the company's place in this ranking is a matter of manipulation, since Strategy's own methodology is described as having "significant caveats."
My verdict: Saylor masterfully turns the corporate balance sheet into a PR tool, but investors should separate marketing narratives from real financial resilience. As long as BTC rises, such metrics look convincing, but in the event of a deep correction, the market will quickly recalculate "reserves" at fair value.