Adam Back’s $2.1B Bitcoin Treasury Play Set to Challenge MARA in BTC Holdings

Bitcoin Standard Treasury Co.'s SPAC deal combines fiat financing and a bitcoin-denominated PIPE, aiming to debut on the Nasdaq with over 30,000 BTC and an aggressive growth plan.

Bitcoin Standard Treasury Co. (BSTR), a bitcoin 

BTC$118,044.54 treasury vehicle led by cryptography pioneer Adam Back, sees itself as a company with a mission to accelerate real-world bitcoin adoption. It might be setting out on another milestone: becoming one of the biggest corporate bitcoin holders.

The company, which is preparing to go public on Nasdaq by merging with Cantor Equity Partners (CEPO), already has 30,021 BTC on its balance sheet, with plans to grow its stack beyond 50,000 coins.

This will set it on a path to potentially overtaking MARA Holdings (MARA) as the second-largest corporate holder of BTC, behind Strategy.

MARA has more than 50,600 BTC, according to bitcointreasuries.net. Strategy has just under 629,000.

Currently, MSTR, MARA, and BSTR collectively hold approximately 710,000 bitcoins, which represent about 3.38% of bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million.

'Liquidity, security, and scale'

Unlike some corporate treasuries that sit on bitcoin passively, BSTR intends to use techniques that include selling puts to accumulate BTC at lower prices, bitcoin-backed revolvers, and placing collateral with regulated tri-party custodians.

“We’re not interested in chasing DeFi yield or taking on counterparty risk we can’t manage. This is about liquidity, security, and scale," Back said exclusively with CoinDesk.

“Bitcoin was created as sound money and BSTR is being created to bring that same integrity to modern capital markets.”

The SPAC deal with Cantor combines, for the first time, traditional Wall Street financing with a bitcoin-denominated private placement equity (PIPE).

In addition to 25,000 BTC contributed by the company's founders, another 5,021 BTC will be raised from the bitcoin community.