The corporate treasury of Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, has reached a historic milestone. Based on my calculations and estimates, derived from the company's own methodology, its reserve capital now exceeds that of any financial corporation in the S&P 500 index. The only exception is Warren Buffett's empire, Berkshire Hathaway.
The Path to the Record: From the First $250 Million to $65 Billion
Strategy currently holds 845,050 BTC on its balance sheet. The first tranche was acquired back in August 2020 — at that time, the company received 21,454 bitcoins for $250 million. Today, these coins are valued at approximately $65.2 billion. Notably, purchases resumed on August 31 after a ten-week pause: the company added 4,603 coins for $370 million.
Including $6.7 billion in dollar-denominated assets, total reserves reach $72.3 billion. CEO Phong Le cited a comparable figure — around $72 billion — on the same day, confirming the consistency of the data. An important nuance: the company effectively has no net leverage. Dollar assets of $6.714 billion almost exactly mirror debt of the same size.
Michael Saylor emphasizes: "Strategy now has more total reserve capital than any financial company in the S&P 500, except Berkshire Hathaway." However, digging deeper reveals a less clear-cut picture.
A Metric with Caveats: What the Number Hides
The Total Reserve Capital metric does not account for senior claims — obligations that are settled first. For banks, these are deposits, which is why JPMorgan's figure sits at approximately negative $1.35 trillion. On the chart, Strategy stands at $66 billion, but the presentation from August 30 discloses $21.5 billion in senior claims, of which $14.8 billion are preferred shares. Net reserves, meanwhile, amount to $50.7 billion. The $66 billion figure is only achieved by excluding preferred shares from the calculation, while bank deposits remain in the denominator.
This approach inflates the ratio of reserves to senior obligations. On the chart, it stands at 10.75, but adding preferred shares drops it to 3.4. Strategy itself calls this calculation an "additional metric with significant caveats." Berkshire's report, for comparison, shows $365.5 billion in cash and treasury bonds as of June 30 — a figure that is easy to verify, whereas the company's position in such a ranking is not.
At the time of analysis, bitcoin is holding around $77,200, down 0.1% on the day. MSTR shares traded near $122.3 on Wednesday, down 2.1%. Investors reacted positively to the increase in cash reserves in late August, pushing the price to nearly $140, followed by a slight correction.
My view: While BTC consolidates, MSTR shares are falling faster — a classic sign of a weak market. However, Strategy's fundamental transformation from a software company into a bitcoin treasury continues to bear fruit: even with all the caveats, its position in the S&P 500 is becoming increasingly unique and hard to ignore.