Strategy, the world’s largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder, outperformed BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) fund for the first time since the second quarter of 2024. The company attracted attention by increasing the total amount of BTC in its portfolio to 815,061 with its recent purchase of 34,164 Bitcoins.
Giant procurement race: Historical competition with IBIT
BlackRock’s IBIT fund currently has 802,824 BTC. Thus, Strategy was ahead of its rival by approximately 12,200 units. While this difference is not huge in absolute terms, it is of symbolic importance given the rapid rise of IBIT. In the short time it has been in operation, IBIT has become the fastest ETF in history to reach $70 billion in assets and has become one of the primary sources of BlackRock’s income.
While Strategy held 189,150 BTC at the beginning of 2024, IBIT surpassed it with approximately 273 thousand BTC at the beginning of the second quarter of the year. Strategy had 214,400 BTC during the same period. Although IBIT maintained its superiority for a while, the last giant purchase completely changed the balance.
With the purchase of 34,164 BTC, Strategy reached 815,061 Bitcoin in total, thus surpassing IBIT for the first time. The company attributes its recent sudden accumulation largely to its new funding sources and special financing structure.
Different investment approach and results
The investment methods of these two major players show striking differences. As a classic operating company, Strategy accumulates Bitcoin and leverages its assets using financial instruments such as market share issuance, convertible bonds and perpetual preferred shares. In contrast, IBIT is a spot ETF that provides investors with passive access directly to the Bitcoin price; There is no leverage or operating risk here.
IBIT has gained approximately 55 percent in value since the beginning of the year. However, Strategy increased by up to 250 percent in the same period, thanks to its leveraged model; Recent purchases and financial leverage were decisive in this increase.
Recent strategic moves
Strategy’s new capital model, perpetual preferred stock STRC, has accelerated growth by creating a flexible and scalable source of the company’s Bitcoin purchases. Thanks to this structure, a large accumulation of approximately 80,000 BTC was possible in 2026.
On the other hand, there has been a slight decrease in the amount of assets in IBIT’s portfolio recently; The size of the fund remained largely stable.
As a result, although the path followed and the tools used by the two companies differ, the total Bitcoin competition between them is carefully monitored in the market. These developments reflect the new strategies in approaching Bitcoin, especially by large investors, and the balance of power in the industry.
