Corporate Bitcoin buying is not moving in one direction. Strategy has resumed purchases at a pace that now dominates the public-company market, while many other holders are selling, trimming, or standing aside. That split matters more than any simple “institutions are buying” or “corporates are exiting” headline, because current demand is increasingly concentrated in one operator and one funding model.
One buyer now sets the tone
Strategy bought about 45,000 BTC over the last 30 days, roughly 94% of all corporate Bitcoin buying in that period. The company now holds around 767,000 BTC, equal to about 65% of the Bitcoin held by public companies. In a market that still likes to group treasury adopters together, those numbers point to something narrower: corporate demand is no longer broad-based enough to treat as a clean institutional trend.
Public Bitcoin treasury companies still hold roughly 1.16 million BTC, or more than 5% of Bitcoin’s fixed 21 million supply. But stockpiles and incremental demand are different things. Holdings remain large because earlier accumulation has not fully reversed, while current net buying has slowed sharply outside Strategy.
Who is still buying, who is cutting back
The contrast is easier to see side by side. Riot Platforms sold about $200 million of Bitcoin in late 2025, taking its holdings from more than 19,000 BTC down to roughly 17,500 BTC. Bhutan, which built a sizable position through state-backed mining, has reduced holdings by more than 3,000 BTC and sold 375 BTC in March 2026. Several other holders, including MARA Holdings and Exodus Movement, have also been net sellers to cover debt, operations, or balance-sheet needs.
| Holder | Recent direction | Concrete marker | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy | Aggressive accumulation | About 45,000 BTC bought in 30 days; ~94% of corporate buying | Corporate demand is highly concentrated |
| Riot Platforms | Selling | ~$200 million sold in late 2025; holdings fell to ~17,500 BTC | Miners are using Bitcoin as a funding source, not only a reserve asset |
| Bhutan government | Trimming | More than 3,000 BTC reduced; 375 BTC sold in March 2026 | Even long-term holders are monetizing part of reserves |
| Smaller treasury buyers | Modest accumulation | Names cited include American Bitcoin, Gemini, and Strive | There is still interest, but not at market-moving scale |
This is the main correction to the usual narrative: the market is polarized, not uniformly bullish or bearish. Sales by miners or sovereign-linked holders do not prove institutional retreat on their own, but neither do Strategy’s purchases prove that corporate adoption is broadening. They show different operators responding to different constraints.
Why Strategy can keep buying when others cannot
Strategy is funding purchases through at-the-market equity offerings and internal cash flow, which gives it a different operating logic from miners or treasuries that need Bitcoin sales to meet expenses. Even with the stock trading about 71% below its 52-week high, the company has kept returning to the market for capital. Management, including CEO Phong Le and executive chairman Michael Saylor, continues to frame Bitcoin as a long-duration capital asset rather than an inventory item.
That distinction matters for market structure. Riot or MARA may sell into strength or weakness because electricity, debt service, and equipment cycles force liquidity decisions. Bhutan’s trimming reflects state-level portfolio management and funding choices. Strategy, by contrast, is trying to convert equity market access into recurring Bitcoin demand. If that mechanism stays open, it can support continued accumulation even when other corporate holders are de-risking. If it tightens, a large share of the bid disappears at once.
Saylor has argued that Bitcoin’s daily liquidity exceeds $50 billion and that Strategy still controls only around 3.5% of total supply, which is meant to reduce fears around market impact. But the more immediate issue is not whether Bitcoin can absorb one company’s activity in normal conditions; it is whether institutional demand looks durable when one buyer is doing almost all the work.
ETF inflows are a separate signal
Bitcoin ETFs have taken in about $56 billion since 2024, which means there is still meaningful institutional exposure entering the asset class outside corporate treasuries. But ETF flows and corporate treasury behavior should not be treated as interchangeable signals. ETFs reflect allocator demand through regulated vehicles, while treasury buying depends on company-specific capital decisions, board tolerance, and financing conditions.
That separation helps explain why both facts can be true at once: ETF adoption remains real, yet corporate treasury buying has narrowed sharply. New treasury entrants in Japan, including Metaplanet and Remixpoint, and smaller initiatives in Brazil and South Korea show the idea is still spreading. The missing piece is scale. None of those entrants currently offset the retreat or caution among larger existing holders.
Check the funding channel, not just the BTC tally
The next useful checkpoint is whether Strategy can sustain its purchase pace through volatility. A rising BTC balance alone is a lagging indicator. The leading signal is whether the company can keep using equity issuance and cash generation to fund new buys without materially weakening market access or investor tolerance.
Watch three things in the coming quarters: changes in the cadence of at-the-market offerings, whether other public holders resume net accumulation instead of balance-sheet sales, and whether regulatory or market conditions make treasury strategies easier or harder to finance. If those factors do not improve, the current setup remains a concentrated demand story rather than a broad corporate adoption wave.
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