Blog: Strategy – the world’s largest Bitcoin company

When a publicly listed company changes its entire strategy, it inevitably attracts a great deal of attention. Just a few years ago, the US-based company Strategy was known as a business intelligence firm, but today its name is associated almost exclusively with Bitcoin. This blog post examines Strategy’s unprecedented decision to invest tens of billions of dollars in bitcoin. This has turned the company into a trailblazer that has sparked interest among retail investors, large corporations, and even nation states.

              
Strategy and Bitcoin
The US company Strategy, previously operating under the name MicroStrategy, first rose to prominence in the crypto world in August 2020. At that time, the US-based company known for its business intelligence operations announced that it had become the first publicly traded company to purchase bitcoins. Today, Strategy is best known as the company that owns the largest amount of bitcoin. The company’s holdings surpassed the 600,000 bitcoin mark in July 2025.
In addition to its large and continuously growing bitcoin holdings, Strategy has also attracted attention due to the performance of its MSTR stock, as the company’s share price has risen by approximately 1,400 percent in about 5.5 years since its first bitcoin purchase. Until 2020, Strategy was known as a business intelligence company, but after its bitcoin purchases began and accelerated, Strategy is now regarded as a Bitcoin company whose share price is largely determined by the company’s bitcoin purchases and holdings.
Michael Saylor and Bitcoin
The most central figure at Strategy is the company’s founder, chairman of the board, and largest shareholder, Michael Saylor. In addition, over the past few years, Saylor has, in the opinion of many, become one of the most significant advocates for Bitcoin. Michael Saylor was born in 1965 in the US state of Nebraska. He later studied aeronautics and astronautics as well as the history of science at the prestigious MIT University. After completing his studies, Saylor founded MicroStrategy, the predecessor to Strategy, in 1989.
In addition to being the key figure behind Strategy, which holds massive bitcoin reserves, Saylor also personally owns a substantial amount of bitcoin. Shortly after Strategy’s first bitcoin purchase in the fall of 2020, Saylor revealed that he personally owned nearly 18,000 bitcoins. Beyond Strategy’s bitcoin acquisitions, Saylor has significantly increased Bitcoin awareness, especially in the United States. He is now interviewed regularly on US television broadcasts and publishes Bitcoin-related content daily on social media. In his public comments, Saylor has focused in particular on why companies should allocate their capital to bitcoin in the same way as Strategy.
History of Strategy’s bitcoin purchases
Let’s briefly go through the history of Strategy’s bitcoin purchases. Below are Strategy’s bitcoin purchases during each calendar year and its bitcoin holdings at the end of each year.
2020: purchases: 70,470, holdings: 70,470 *
2021: purchases: 53,921, holdings: 124,391
2022: purchases: 8,109, holdings: 132,500
2023: purchases: 56,650, holdings: 189,150
2024: purchases: 257,250, holdings: 446,400
2025: purchases: 226,100, holdings: 672,500
2026: purchases: 14,910, holdings: 687,410 **
*The first purchase was made in August
 **Situation as of 15 January 2026
Financing bitcoin purchases
Strategy carried out its first bitcoin purchases using funds accumulated through its business intelligence operations. However, the majority of Strategy’s massive bitcoin holdings have not been acquired using revenue generated from its core business. Instead, bitcoin purchases have primarily been financed through funds raised by other means. Strategy has developed and utilized several, in some cases entirely new, financing tools to raise capital for purchasing bitcoin.
Strategy first used an alternative method to finance a bitcoin purchase in December 2020, when the company issued convertible notes. In practice, a convertible note works such that an investor provides capital to the company in exchange for the note. From the investor’s perspective, a convertible note typically accrues some form of annual interest on the invested capital. For example, the interest rate on Strategy’s first convertible notes was 0.75 percent per year. As the name suggests, the investor has the option to later convert the convertible note into company shares, subject to certain restrictions, or to receive the invested capital plus accrued interest back when the note matures. The maturity date of Strategy’s first convertible notes was set, for example, five years from issuance. In summary, convertible notes allow a company to raise capital at a relatively low interest rate, while offering investors a relatively low-risk way to earn interest and potentially benefit from share price appreciation.
Until 2025, Strategy financed its bitcoin purchases mainly through the convertible notes described above. During 2025, Strategy transitioned to using new and more complex financial instruments to enable further bitcoin acquisitions. These are income-generating preferred stocks, known as STRK, STRF, STRD, STRC, and STRE. Each of these stocks differs in some way from the others, and in general they are considered fairly advanced financial instruments. Each can be explored in more detail, for example, on Strategy’s website.
In practice, Strategy can raise funds through these income-generating preferred stocks without having to repay the capital raised at issuance in the future. This is possible because, unlike convertible notes, these stocks do not have a maturity date. From an investor’s perspective, income-generating preferred stocks are particularly attractive due to their regular high yield. In practice, an investor holding these stocks typically receives interest monthly or quarterly, corresponding to an annual yield of approximately 8–10 percent. In addition, depending on the type of stock, the investor may have the option to convert their shares into Strategy’s MSTR stock. Strategy’s income-generating preferred stocks are aimed especially at institutional investors and wealthy individuals who want to benefit from Bitcoin’s long-term potential without the high volatility associated with direct bitcoin ownership or MSTR stock.
Summary
The story of the US-based company Strategy is an exceptional example of the impact a single strategic decision can have. By shifting the company’s focus from business intelligence software to massive bitcoin purchases, Strategy has become not only the world’s largest Bitcoin company but also one of the most influential players in the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin.
Under the leadership of Michael Saylor, Strategy has been built into a pioneering company that not only owns a vast amount of bitcoin but has also developed entirely new financing models to raise capital for acquiring bitcoin. Strategy’s story is an excellent example of how the courage to act as a pioneer and a long-term belief in Bitcoin can create exceptional value for both the company and its shareholders.

Ville Viitaharju
Cryptocurrency specialist