Strategy holds 780,897 BTC valued at over $59Bn. The BlackRock crypto IBIT fund holds 798,026 BTC. That gap, roughly 17,000 coins, could close this week. The detail most headlines are missing, though, is how the mechanics actually work: Strategy has been selling a financial instrument called STRC to raise cash, then deploying that cash directly into Bitcoin.

Last week, STRC posted back-to-back trading days with more than $1Bn in volume. Estimates from Bitcoin for Corporations suggest that activity could translate into a purchase of nearly 30,000 BTC, more than enough to push Strategy past BlackRock’s IBIT for the first time. The question is whether the SEC filing expected on April 20 confirms it.

This development comes as Bitcoin holds steady above $76,000, with a +2% daily pump, as trading volume surges to over $41.9Bn, highlighting renewed demand for the leading digital asset.

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How Close Is Strategy to Flipping BlackRock’s IBIT in Bitcoin Holdings?

The math is straightforward. Strategy needs to buy more than 17,129 BTC to surpass IBIT’s current holdings of 798,026 BTC. At recent prices near $75,000 per coin, that’s roughly $1.2Bn worth of Bitcoin. Based on STRC’s recent trading volumes, analysts believe Strategy may have raised enough to fund a purchase nearly double that threshold.

STRC – short for Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, is essentially a financial product Strategy sells to institutional investors to raise capital. Think of it like a corporate IOU that pays investors an 11.5% annual dividend while trading near a stable $100 price. Investors get a reliable income; Strategy gets a steady cash pipeline that it routes directly into Bitcoin purchases. It’s a funding machine, and it’s been running hot.

STRATEGY OVERTAKES BLACKROCK AS LARGEST BITCOIN HOLDER

Saylor’s Strategy has officially surpassed BlackRock’s IBIT ETF, now holding ~815,061 BTC vs ~802,824 BTC for $IBIT.

The flip comes after its latest buy of 34,164 $BTC for ~$2.54B last week, its third-largest purchase… pic.twitter.com/Iy828mJYAv

— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) April 21, 2026

Strategy’s most recent disclosed purchase added 13,927 BTC at an average price of $75,000 per coin, a $1Bn buy funded entirely by STRC proceeds. If the current week’s STRC activity raised $2Bn or more, as volume patterns suggest, a 25,000–30,000 BTC acquisition becomes plausible. That would push Strategy’s total past 800,000 BTC and clear IBIT’s holdings with room to spare.

Michael Saylor, Strategy’s executive chairman, posted “Think Even ₿igger” on X on April 19 alongside a screenshot of the company’s Bitcoin portfolio tracker. Investors who follow Strategy closely treat these posts as a reliable early signal – historically, a cryptic Saylor post precedes an official SEC Form 8-K filing by days. The pattern has repeated enough times that it functions as its own market signal. Saylor’s buying signals have become a closely watched indicator for BTC price momentum.

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What Strategy Overtaking the BlackRock Crypto IBIT Would Actually Mean for BTC Price

If the purchase materializes at the estimated scale, it would make Strategy the second-largest Bitcoin holder in the world, behind only Satoshi Nakamoto, whose coins have never moved. Surpassing BlackRock, crypto IBIT carries real symbolic weight: a single corporate treasury leapfrogging the flagship fund of the world’s largest asset manager is not a routine data point.

The demand mechanics matter here too. When BlackRock’s IBIT accumulates Bitcoin, it does so through the ETF’s authorized participant structure – market makers buy BTC to create new fund shares.

Strategy buys directly, removing coins from circulation and depositing them into a corporate treasury with no redemption mechanism. That’s a structurally different supply pressure. More coins are permanently locked away than those held in a fund that investors can exit.

(SOURCE: The Block)

The bullish scenario: if Strategy deploys $2Bn or more into Bitcoin this week, it adds sustained directional buying pressure at a moment when institutional accumulation is already accelerating. The caveat scenario: Bitcoin’s price at the time of deployment, not the raised amount, determines how many coins actually get purchased. A price spike between the STRC settlement and the BTC purchase shrinks the coin count, even if the dollar figure holds.

Watch for Strategy’s SEC Form 8-K filing, expected by April 22–23, for confirmation. IBIT’s weekly inflow data, typically updated Mondays via on-chain trackers, will show whether BlackRock crypto is also adding to its stack in the same window. The gap could narrow or widen before the dust settles.