MicroStrategy's Next Bitcoin Purchase Is Likely to Take Its Holdings Above Grayscale's GBTC

MicroStrategy (MSTR) could soon have bigger bitcoin (BTC) pockets than Grayscale.

The company held a total of 252,220 bitcoins, or 1.2% of the total supply which is capped at 21 million, per its latest regulatory filing on Sept. 20. Grayscale, which held upwards of 620,000 in its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) prior to the launch of the U.S. spot ETFs in January, currently holds just over 254,000 tokens split between GBTC and its newer lower-fee Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC).

Recent capital raises, though, have left MicroStrategy with more than $1 billion which the company has yet to put to work (or at least has not yet announced). Presumably, these funds will be used for more bitcoin, which would add thousands of more coins to its balance sheet and bring its holdings far above that of Grayscale.

This would also make MicroStrategy the fifth largest holder of the cryptocurrency, trailing only BlackRock, Binance, Satoshi Nakamoto and Coinbase. An important distinction, of course, is that BlackRock, Binance and Coinbase hold bitcoins for clients, not for their own account.

Under the leadership of then CEO and now Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy started purchasing bitcoin with cash from its balance sheet in August 2020. Since, it has aggressively used the capital markets to raise billions with which to continually add to holdings. The company's average purchase price is just over $39,000 versus bitcoin's current price of around $64,000. The stack today is worth about $16 billion.

As for Grayscale, which pioneered public access to bitcoin via funds, it chose to keep the fee for its GBTC at a relatively high 1.50% – more than 100 basis points above all competitors – following the conversion to a spot ETF. The result has been a fast bleed in its assets. The Bitcoin Mini Trust, which carries a far more competitive 0.15% fee, has managed to add assets, but holdings stood at just 33,753 tokens as of the end of last week.