Bitcoin Treasuries have become popular in the world economy after the price of BTC crossed $100k, giving all the treasuries much higher returns than most other traditional market assets.
In this article, we will explore the concept of Bitcoin Treasuries and understand how the model grew from a single company to a trillion-dollar empire.
Take a look at all the Bitcoin Treasuries in the world with this Comprehensive Dashboard.
What is a Bitcoin Treasury?
A Bitcoin Treasury is a reserve that holds just Bitcoin. The BTC in the reserve is purchased with a belief that the price will only go upwards in the long term due to factors like scarcity, high demand, anonymity, easy portability, ease of storage, and a lot of other factors.
Bitcoin Treasuries are generally established by companies to benefit from the long-term bullish trend in its price. Over the years, Bitcoin has appreciated from $0.001 in 2009 to $100,000 in 2025.
As a result, several companies, institutions, governments, universities, and public funds have heavily invested in Bitcoin.
What is the Bitcoin Treasury Business Model?
With respect to business, the Bitcoin Treasury Model refers to a strategy where Bitcoin is purchased with debt or excess cash to establish a reserve. As the price of Bitcoin grows in the future, the returns from the reserve is expected to cross the cost of debt (interest+principle).
For those buying with free cash flow, the benefits of investing in Bitcoin are expected to outperform all other well-known modes of investment.
As a result, several corporate bodies, institutions, and governments have setup Bitcoin reserves for themselves, such as Strategy, Metaplanet. GameStop, KULR, and countries like the USA, Bhutan, El Salvador, etc.
Michael Saylor’s Contribution
Michael Saylor was the first to set up a well-planned Bitcoin reserve. He started buying Bitcoin for his company Strategy(then MicroStrategy) via debt since August 2020.
The strategy was simple: buying Bitcoin with debt that is sourced from selling convertible bonds. Later, the company sold equity shares to finance Bitcoin purchases.
#NOTE: Convertible bonds are those debt instruments that automatically get converted into shares if the debtor (in this case, Strategy) is unable to pay back the money to the creditors.
If the Bitcoin purchases pay off, the total asset value would outweigh the total liabilities (i.e., combined debt).
But, if the price of Bitcoin fails to appreciate much, then since the debt is convertible, the creditor will have the shares of the company and could sell them in the market. However, the creditor would be incentivized to hold the shares as nobody would want to sell them at a loss. Anyways, the price trend of Bitcoin has always been positive in the long term.
Why Did It Succeed?
Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin strategy succeeded because of their low default risk model and because of Bitcoin’s technology.
Convertible bonds always carry low default risk for the debtor (here Strategy) but carries a higher risk of diminished returns for the creditor. However, the higher risk is offset by converting those bonds into shares, which is not possible in the case of traditional bonds (which can go to zero value on default).
The second part of the strategy was already well tested in the 11 years of Bitcoin’s existence (2009-2020). In a presentation to The Bitcoin 2024 Conference, Saylor explained this part of the strategy, showing that over the 14 years of its existence, Bitcoin has outperformed nearly every economic benchmark, such as inflation, bonds, treasuries, real estate, gold, equity indices, ETFs, and all other traditional assets.
Comparison with the Ethereum Treasury Model
The Ethereum Treasury Model is also based on the same principle as Bitcoin Treasuries. However, those treasuries failed to deliver early because of the lack of definite growth in Ethereum’s price between 2020 and 2025.
This failure was primarily caused by the SEC’s anti-staking rule for Ethereum ETFs, which killed their early gains.
Further, Ethereum is more technical than Bitcoin (due to staking, restaking, governance, collateralization, etc.), which means it was much more difficult for institutions to understand the concept.
Unique Bitcoin Treasuries in the World
Several institutions, companies, and governments have established their own Bitcoin Treasuries to benefit from its rising demand.
You can check the current size, value, and growth of each treasury with our own Bitcoin Treasury Tracker.
Strategy (Formerly MicroStrategy)
Strategy was the pioneer of the Bitcoin Treasury Model under its Chairman, Michael Saylor. He was the first to understand the long-term growth prospects in Bitcoin and the inability of governments to impose full censorship on its network.
Strategy currently owns the largest Bitcoin treasury and is expected to lead in the near future as it benefits from the first mover advantage.
How MicroStrategy Became World’s Largest Corporate Bitcoin Holder?
Metaplanet
Metaplanet was the second major corporation to establish its Bitcoin Treasury. Though its holdings are much smaller than Strategy’s, it was the first mover in Asia and holds the largest known Bitcoin Reserves on the continent.
GameStop
GameStop established its own independent Bitcoin Treasury in 2025 and was the first major company to do so without a net debt. Unlike Strategy and Metaplanet, GameStop utilized its $4.5 billion worth of free cash reserves to provide liquidity to its $1.5 billion worth of borrowed funds (establishing a net-zero liability).
US Bitcoin Reserve
The US Bitcoin Reserve was established from seized Bitcoins from all illegal activities in the country. It held 200k BTC at the time of its establishment and has no plans to expand it further in the near future. The aim of this treasury is to benefit from the appreciating value only.
El Salvador Government Treasury
The El Salvador Bitcoin Treasury was established in 2022 when President Nayib Bukele bought Bitcoin as a measure to counter inflation and provide some financial cushion to its economy, which has been in trouble for some time.
The government bought Bitcoins in small batches and continues to do so even after multiple warnings from the IMF.
Bhutan Druk Holdings Treasury
Bhutan’s Druk Holdings, a government holding company, has acquired its Bitcoins via mining, unlike its peers, all of whom have acquired them via open market purchases or seizures. The tiny Himalayan country has established the second-largest government Bitcoin Treasury after the USA and continue to grow it.
