Overview Public companies now hold 1,278,917 BTC across 199 names, equal to 6.09% of the 21 million supply and worth roughly $104.6 billion at the $81,798 price used on the Bitcoin Treasuries dashboarOverview Public companies now hold 1,278,917 BTC across 199 names, equal to 6.09% of the 21 million supply and worth roughly $104.6 billion at the $81,798 price used on the Bitcoin Treasuries dashboar
Bitcoin Treasury Tracker: Top Public Companies Holding the Most BTC
Overview
Public companies now hold 1,278,917 BTC across 199 names, equal to 6.09% of the 21 million supply and worth roughly $104.6 billion at the $81,798 price used on the Bitcoin Treasuries dashboard. CoinGecko's price page shows bitcoin near $82,502 on October 9, down 0.70% on the day. Aggregate holdings sit at a record, but the financing logic that built those balance sheets changed direction in 2026.
The ranking is no longer the interesting part. Strategy has sold bitcoin several times this year to fund preferred dividends, Metaplanet's average cost sits above the current market price, MARA has been trimming while pivoting toward AI infrastructure, and Cointelegraph reported on September 24, citing a DWF Ventures study, that 16 of the 20 largest digital asset treasury companies by assets under management trade below the value of the crypto they hold. Holdings, cost basis and the ratio of market value to holdings have to be read together, because any one of them in isolation will mislead.
Key Takeaways
Concentration dominates the data. Strategy alone holds 848,000 BTC, roughly two thirds of everything held by the 199 public companies tracked, so any claim about corporate demand is largely a claim about one company.
Cost basis dictates behavior. Strategy's cumulative average cost is about $75,441 and sits below the market, while Metaplanet's is about $98,454 and sits roughly 16% above it. The same position has very different financing consequences depending on which side of that line it falls.
Buyers have become sellers. Strategy opened a bitcoin monetization program in June, MARA sold roughly $1.5 billion as it moved toward AI infrastructure, and French semiconductor firm Sequans liquidated its remaining coins and exited entirely.
Losing the premium was the turning point. Strategy's enterprise mNAV fell below 1 for the first time on June 27, after which the model flipped from issuing shares to buy coins toward selling coins to pay dividends. The mNAV tracker showed roughly 1.05 as of October 9.
Exposure is not ownership. Bitcoin exposure obtained through ETF shares, options strategies or preferred securities never appears as BTC on a balance sheet, and conflating the two double counts the same coins.
Custodied assets are not corporate holdings. Coins an exchange or custodian holds for clients belong to those clients and sit in a different ledger from the firm's own position.
The Leaderboard and the Cost Lines Behind It
Strategy Remains the Whole Story
Investing.com's report on the latest 8-K puts Strategy at 848,000 BTC as of October 4, with a total cost basis of roughly $63.97 billion and a cumulative average purchase price of $75,440.7. Between October 1 and 4 it added 334 coins at an average of $85,838.8, funded with MSTR stock sale proceeds and cash. For comparison, the company's own press archive records 843,738 BTC as of May 26, when it completed a $1.5 billion debt repurchase and reported a year-to-date BTC Yield of 13.3%.
At the current price that stack is worth roughly $70 billion, while the mNAV tracker lists a fully diluted market capitalization near $58.2 billion. The gap between those two numbers is the market pricing the debt and preferred obligations stacked on top of the coins.
Divergence in the Second Tier
Japan's Metaplanet ranks second. CoinDesk reported on October 5 that the company held about 44,000 BTC worth roughly $3.8 billion as of September 30, a net addition of 1,000 coins in the third quarter. The mechanics deserve attention: it sold 10,000 BTC at an average of $78,925 for about $789.2 million, holding the proceeds in cash to demonstrate it could cover interest-bearing debt, then bought back 11,000 BTC at an average of $86,246 for about $948.7 million. Its total position carries a cost basis near $4.33 billion, or roughly $98,454 per coin.
Twenty One Capital sits third at 43,514 BTC. The company listed on the NYSE in December 2025 through a merger with Cantor Equity Partners, and Decrypt's coverage of the debut noted shares trading below the pre-merger benchmark, with Tether and Bitfinex as backers alongside a minority stake from SoftBank. Tether has since bought out that SoftBank position, according to reports in May 2026, tightening its control of the company.
Among miners, MARA Holdings holds 35,577 BTC. The Block reported in March that the company revised its holding policy to allow sales from its stockpile, and CoinDesk reported on May 12 that it had sold roughly $1.5 billion of bitcoin while shifting toward AI infrastructure. Miners differ structurally from treasury vehicles, since they produce new coins daily and their sales are usually operating decisions rather than price calls.
The rest of the upper table includes Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company at 30,021, Strive at 29,462, Bullish at 22,000, Coinbase at 17,311 and CleanSpark at 13,703. One entry needs a footnote: SpaceX appears eighth with 18,712 BTC, but it is not a public company, so it does not belong in a like-for-like count.
Operating Companies Sit Frozen
Firms that treat bitcoin as a reserve rather than a strategy have barely moved. CoinDesk reported on April 22 that Tesla left its 11,509 BTC untouched in the first quarter while booking a $173 million after-tax loss on digital assets, as bitcoin fell from about $90,000 to roughly $68,000 during the period. These positions are a useful control group, because every change in their reported value comes from price alone.
Owning Bitcoin Versus Owning Bitcoin Exposure
Balance Sheet Coins Versus ETF Shares
The most common error in treasury tracking is counting spot ETF exposure as direct ownership. A company that buys ETF shares owns fund units, while the underlying bitcoin sits with the fund's custodian and is already counted in the fund's reported holdings. Positions like these surface in institutional holdings disclosures rather than as digital assets on the balance sheet. Counting both the fund and its corporate shareholders inside one "corporate holdings" figure counts the same coins twice. For the flow side of that channel, the bitcoin ETF flow tracker is the better reference.
Options, Preferred Shares and Interest Income
A third category emerged in 2026 that is neither spot nor ETF. The CoinDesk report cited above describes Metaplanet's Net Interest Income Strategy, which targets preferred securities issued by other bitcoin treasury companies with an allocation of roughly 10% to 15% of total assets, aiming for returns above its own funding costs. Its options-based Bitcoin Income Generation business, meanwhile, produced about $5.4 million of third-quarter revenue, down 51% quarter over quarter and 65% year over year. Strategy's STRC and similar preferreds belong to the same family: holders own a credit instrument backed by bitcoin rather than the price exposure itself.
The significance is structural. Treasury companies are beginning to hold one another's securities, which raises correlation inside the sector and gives a single company's liquidity problem a path to travel.
Custody Is a Separate Ledger
Exchange and custodian figures are the easiest to misread. Coins held for clients are client property and never belong in a corporate holdings count. The numbers attributed to exchange operators in these tables refer to proprietary assets, which is a different quantity from platform custody totals, and reconciling that definition is the first step when comparing data sources.
Why the Financing Model Reversed
After the Premium Disappeared
The treasury model rests on one condition: the stock trades at a premium to the value of its holdings, so issuing shares to buy bitcoin raises bitcoin per share. That condition broke in June. CoinDesk reported on June 27 that Strategy's enterprise mNAV had fallen below 1, with the market valuing the company beneath the bitcoin on its books. The measure takes basic market capitalization plus total debt and perpetual preferred stock, subtracts the dollar reserve, and divides by bitcoin holdings. Below that line, issuing equity means selling ownership for less than the assets behind it, which dilutes existing holders.
A closed financing channel does not come with a matching reduction in obligations.
From Buyer to Seller
The pivot followed immediately. Cryptonews reported on June 30 that Strategy filed on June 29 to sell up to $1.25 billion of bitcoin to bolster its cash reserve and cover preferred dividends and interest, triggered by mNAV touching 0.99 on June 27, with annual preferred dividends running above $700 million. Before that, in late May, the company had completed its first sale since 2022, which CoinDesk documented on June 1 as 32 coins at an average of $77,135, with proceeds earmarked for preferred distributions.
By mid-August the pace had picked up. Startup Fortune's August 16 summary counts four sales totaling close to 7,000 BTC for the year, including 3,588 coins for about $216 million between June 29 and July 5 and 1,690 coins for about $109 million on August 10, with the dollar reserve building to $4.65 billion.
Exits have started too. The Cointelegraph report cited earlier notes that Sequans Communications sold its last 314 BTC and left the asset class entirely, and that only Bit Digital, Strive, Hyperliquid Strategies and BitMine were still trading above the value of their holdings.
What the Data Means for Investors
Read the Cost Line Before the Ranking
Holdings answer how big a position is. The cost line answers how much pressure it carries. Strategy's average cost near $75,441 leaves it roughly 9% in the money, while Metaplanet's near $98,454 leaves it roughly 16% underwater. Once price slips below cost while interest and dividends keep accruing, selling stops being a choice. Putting each company's cost line next to the live price tells you more than the ranking does.
Treat Treasuries as a Supply Variable, Not a Demand Signal
For two years corporate buying was read as one-directional demand. The 2026 record requires an amendment. When the premium disappears and fixed obligations persist, the same entities turn into sellers, and they tend to sell into weakness, because weakness is what pushed mNAV down in the first place. That reflexivity makes corporate holdings both a demand and a supply factor, best interpreted alongside the bitcoin market cycle and the flow picture.
What It Changes for an Individual Holder
Owning bitcoin through equities layers financing structure, dividend obligations and governance risk on top of price risk. When these stocks trade at discounts, the leverage works in both directions. Holding spot carries a simpler risk structure, which is why the guide to buying bitcoin and the BTC purchase walkthrough start with the form of ownership rather than the entry price. Live quotes sit on the BTC price page, and MEXC keeps related trading campaigns updated on the BTC events page.
Corporate holdings update by filing. The price updates every second. Watch the number that is actually setting it, on BTC spot
Risks, Scenarios and What to Watch
Risks Worth Stating Plainly
Definitional risk comes first. Trackers disagree on what counts, and whether private companies, ETF exposure or miner inventory are included changes the total materially. Concentration risk follows, since one company holds about two thirds of the tracked total, making this closer to a single credit story than an industry trend. Reporting lag is third, because holdings surface through 8-Ks and quarterly filings after the trades happen, so current supply and demand cannot be inferred from stale disclosures. Finally there is linkage risk, now that treasury companies hold one another's preferred securities, giving refinancing trouble at one firm a route into others.
Three Scenarios
In a price-repair case, bitcoin holds above most companies' cost lines, mNAV recovers above 1, equity issuance reopens, and these firms return to being net buyers, easing supply pressure.
In a range case, price stays near $80,000, some firms sit above cost and others below, and the sector keeps splitting between companies with real operating revenue and pure holding vehicles, with more consolidation and more exits.
In a weaker-price case, more firms fall below cost while interest and dividends stay fixed, and forced selling scales up. This supply arrives in the same direction as the decline, which amplifies short-term volatility. The low-probability tail is a refinancing failure at a highly levered treasury company, at which point attention shifts from holdings to debt structure.
The Watchlist
Company filings come first, since Strategy discloses both purchases and sales through 8-Ks, making it the highest-frequency primary source. Next is the calendar of preferred dividend and interest payments, which is the hard constraint behind any decision to sell. Third is mNAV itself, the leading indicator for whether the financing channel is open. Fourth is third-quarter earnings season, where fair value treatment pushes price swings straight through the income statement and the full cost basis picture becomes visible. Across assets, the balance between bitcoin and traditional reserves on corporate balance sheets is worth tracking, for which the comparison of bitcoin against gold and the Nasdaq is the relevant frame.
Exclusive View from James Mitchell
For James Mitchell, this leaderboard means something different in 2026 than it did a year ago. Treating corporate holdings as demand-side evidence assumes those buyers will not sell. Strategy's four sales totaling close to 7,000 coins, MARA's roughly $1.5 billion of disposals and Sequans' full exit falsify that assumption together. A more accurate description is that the 1.27 million coins on public balance sheets are not locked supply but a financed, dividend-bearing, disclosure-bound float, a meaningful share of which will be sold on decisions driven by the liability side rather than by any view on price.
Two misreadings look most likely. The first equates rising aggregate holdings with robust demand. The total is still climbing, but the composition is deteriorating, with growth concentrated in the few firms that can still raise capital while the bottom of the table exits. The second treats mNAV as a valuation metric. It behaves more like a financing switch: above 1, issuing equity to buy coins is accretive, and below it the identical action dilutes, so corporate behavior jumps discontinuously around that line rather than sliding along it. Strategy crossing below on June 27 and filing a monetization program two days later is the textbook illustration.
Three variables deserve tracking from here. The distance between each company's cost basis and spot determines the scale of potential forced supply, and at current prices Metaplanet, roughly 16% above its own cost line, is the cleanest sample to watch. Cross-holdings within the sector come next, since Metaplanet's plan to put 10% to 15% of total assets into peer preferred securities raises returns in an upswing and transmits stress in a downswing. Third is the maturity profile of the financing, because preferred dividends fall due monthly or quarterly while bitcoin declines to cooperate with that calendar, and the mismatch is itself the risk.
The cross-asset lesson is that this is the closed-end fund discount replaying on a new asset class. When a vehicle exists only to hold an asset, the market eventually prices it at or below net asset value, and any durable premium has to come from a real operating business or genuinely scarce access. That is why the handful of names still trading above NAV mostly have businesses attached. For holders, the conclusion is plain enough: treasury data is useful for understanding supply structure, and poorly suited to serving as a buy signal.
FAQ
Which public company holds the most bitcoin?
Strategy, with 848,000 BTC as of its October 4 disclosure. Measured against the 1,278,917 BTC that Bitcoin Treasuries attributes to 199 public companies, Strategy alone accounts for roughly two thirds of the total. Metaplanet follows with about 44,000, then Twenty One Capital at 43,514, MARA Holdings at 35,577 and Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company at 30,021, with far smaller gaps between them than between any of them and first place.
How much bitcoin do public companies hold in total?
Bitcoin Treasuries counts 1,278,917 BTC across 199 public companies, about 6.09% of the 21 million supply and roughly $104.6 billion at the $81,798 price used on that dashboard. Totals differ by source, because platforms disagree on whether to include private companies and whether exposure obtained through ETFs counts, so definitions should be checked before comparing figures across trackers.
What is the difference between holding bitcoin and holding a bitcoin ETF?
Direct holdings appear as digital assets on the balance sheet and represent ownership of the coins. ETF exposure means owning fund shares while the underlying bitcoin sits with the fund's custodian and is already counted in the fund's own holdings. Accounting treatment, disclosure route and redemption mechanics all differ, and counting both the fund and its corporate shareholders inside one total double counts the same coins.
Why did Strategy start selling bitcoin?
Because the financing model stopped working. Its enterprise mNAV fell below 1 on June 27, meaning the market valued the company below the bitcoin it held, so issuing stock to buy more would dilute existing shareholders. The company filed on June 29 for a monetization program of up to $1.25 billion to build its cash reserve and cover preferred dividends and interest, obligations that exceed $700 million a year. By mid-August the running total for 2026 was close to 7,000 coins.
Which companies are underwater on their bitcoin?
It comes down to cost basis. Metaplanet's sits near $98,454 per coin, above the roughly $82,502 market price, leaving it underwater, while Strategy's near $75,441 remains below spot. Sector-wide, the DWF Ventures study found 16 of the 20 largest digital asset treasury companies by assets under management trading below the value of their holdings, which says the market has stopped paying premiums for balance sheet exposure.
What is mNAV and why does it matter?
It measures a company's market value against the value of the crypto it holds. The enterprise version takes basic market capitalization plus total debt and perpetual preferred stock, subtracts the dollar reserve and divides by bitcoin holdings. It matters because it sets the direction of financing: above 1, issuing shares to buy coins increases bitcoin per share, and below it the same action dilutes, pushing companies toward selling instead. The mNAV tracker showed Strategy near 1.05 as of October 9.
How should miner holdings be interpreted?
Miners are structurally different from treasury vehicles. They produce coins daily, so inventory doubles as working capital, and sales usually reflect power bills, debt service or a change in business direction rather than a view on price. MARA revising its holding policy in March 2026 and then selling roughly $1.5 billion to fund its move into AI infrastructure is the clearest example. Reading miner inventory changes as a sentiment indicator tends to produce the wrong conclusion.
Disclaimer
The information above is provided for general market information and analysis only and does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, legal advice, tax advice or a recommendation to trade. Prices of crypto assets, equities and other related financial assets can fluctuate sharply, and past performance, holdings data and on-chain metrics do not guarantee future results. The holdings, cost bases, valuations and prices cited here come from company filings, data platforms and reputable media as published at the time of writing. Corporate positions change with each new filing and trackers apply different inclusion rules, so the latest company disclosures and platform data should be treated as authoritative. Readers should conduct their own research and make decisions based on their own financial circumstances, investment objectives and risk tolerance, consulting a qualified professional where appropriate. The MEXC Crypto Pulse team accepts no liability for any direct or indirect loss arising from the use of this information.
About the Author
James Mitchell specializes in technical analysis, market trends, and trading strategies for both Bitcoin and altcoins. Based in London, he has over 10 years of experience in financial markets. Before joining MEXC Learn, James worked as a senior analyst at a leading European investment firm, where he developed expertise in risk management and quantitative trading. His transition to cryptocurrency markets began in 2017, and he has since become recognized for his data-driven approach. He holds a Master's degree in Financial Economics from the London School of Economics. His analytical approach combines traditional technical analysis with on-chain metrics to provide readers with actionable insights.
Areas of Expertise: Technical Analysis, Market Trends and Cycles, Trading Strategies, Bitcoin and Altcoin Analysis, Risk Management.
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