The race to be the first institution to hold 1 million bitcoin is tightening. Strategy, the corporate bitcoin treasury company formerly known as MicroStrategy, now holds 843,738 BTC. BlackRock, through its iShares Bitcoin Trust, holds 817,138 BTC. The gap between them is less than 27,000 coins — the smallest it's been since BlackRock's ETF began piling on bitcoin in late 2024.
843,738 vs 817,138
Strategy added bitcoin steadily through the first half of 2026. Its latest purchases pushed its hoard past 840,000. BlackRock's spot ETF, which was the fastest-growing ETF in U.S. market history during late 2024 and early 2025, has also kept buying. But the pace has slowed relative to Strategy's regular accumulations. The result: a gap that's shrunk to a rounding error in institutional terms.
The 27,000-BTC gap
Twenty-seven thousand bitcoin is worth roughly $1.5 billion at current prices. For context, that's about what a mid-tier exchange might hold in its cold wallet. Both firms need roughly 156,000 BTC each to cross the 1 million mark. Strategy has been buying roughly 10,000 BTC per month this year; BlackRock's ETF sees variable inflows. If Strategy maintains its pace, it could hit 1 million by early 2027. BlackRock would need a sustained inflow surge to keep up.
BlackRock's ETF advantage
BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust still has the scale advantage. It's the largest spot bitcoin ETF by assets and enjoys daily trading volume that dwarfs any single corporate buyer. But Strategy's model — issuing convertible bonds or equity to buy bitcoin — lets it accumulate in lump sums without depending on retail flows. That flexibility has narrowed the race.
Neither firm has said publicly it's targeting the 1 million milestone. But the math is clear. The next quarterly filings, due in August, will show whether the gap widened or closed further.
