When a company calls itself the “central bank” of a decentralized asset designed to eliminate the need for central banks, you know the irony budget has been exceeded. But Strategy CEO Phong Le isn’t joking.
In a CoinDesk podcast recorded on August 10, Le declared that Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, functions as Bitcoin’s central bank. The reasoning: with 840,447 BTC on its balance sheet, valued at roughly $53.3B, the company is the second-largest Bitcoin holder on the planet, trailing only the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
The numbers behind the claim
Strategy’s Bitcoin stash now represents more than 4% of Bitcoin’s total supply. The company has executed over 100 separate BTC purchases since it first started buying in 2020. That accumulation spree has transformed what was once a mid-tier business intelligence software firm into the largest institutional Bitcoin holder in the world, surpassing even BlackRock.
Le, who joined the company in 2015 and has served as CEO since 2022, has overseen a significant portion of this accumulation. His trajectory through the C-suite, from CFO to COO to the top job, mirrors the company’s own metamorphosis from enterprise software vendor to what it now bills as the world’s first and largest Bitcoin Treasury Company.
The rebranding from MicroStrategy to Strategy happened on February 5, 2025, a symbolic move that dropped the “Micro” and adopted a Bitcoin-orange visual identity.
What “central bank of Bitcoin” actually means
Le’s central bank analogy is provocative, but it carries a specific logic. Strategy claims to act as a liquidity provider and price signaler, while asserting that it remains fundamentally a net buyer of Bitcoin. When Strategy buys, the market notices. When it sells, even strategically to enhance shareholder value, the market reacts.
With over 4% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist sitting in one corporate treasury, Strategy has the ability to move prices, set sentiment, and establish norms for how institutions interact with Bitcoin.
Corporate treasury strategy as competitive moat
Le has expressed confidence that Strategy’s stock could outperform Bitcoin itself during the next bull cycle. The thesis is straightforward: if Bitcoin goes up 50%, a leveraged vehicle that holds Bitcoin and raises capital to buy more should, in theory, deliver amplified returns.
The company’s strategy of continuously raising capital through both equity and debt financing to expand its Bitcoin position represents a new playbook that other firms are beginning to study. With over 100 purchases completed and no public indication of slowing down, Strategy continues to expand its holdings.