Adam Back’s $2.1B Bitcoin Power Move Threatens MARA’s Dominance in BTC Holdings

Bitcoin bull Adam Back just flipped the script—hard. With a $2.1B treasury play, the Blockstream CEO is gunning for Marathon Digital’s throne as the king of corporate BTC holdings. Game on.

Why it matters: When crypto OGs throw down, markets pay attention. Back’s audacious accumulation signals institutional-grade conviction—or a masterclass in hodl performance art.

The MARA factor: Marathon’s mining empire has long been the benchmark for public company Bitcoin stashes. But Back’s strategic buys could rewrite the rules of the corporate treasury playbook—no pickaxes required.

Between the lines: While traditional finance still debates ‘cash flow,’ crypto natives are busy turning balance sheets into bullish manifestos. Just don’t ask the SEC to make sense of it.

Bottom line: In the high-stakes poker game of Bitcoin accumulation, Back just went all-in. MARA’s move? Your turn, Wall Street.

'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, using 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 of 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.

The company is also raising up to $1.5 billion in fiat financing, the largest PIPE ever announced alongside a bitcoin treasury SPAC merger.

• $400 million in common equity at $10 per share.
• Up to $750 million in convertible senior notes (30% conversion premium, $13 per share).
• Up to $350 million in convertible preferred stock with a 7% dividend and a $13 per share equivalent conversion price.

CEPO could add up to $200 million from its trust, subject to redemptions.

“By securing both fiat and bitcoin funding on day one, we are putting unprecedented firepower behind a single mission: maximizing bitcoin ownership per share while accelerating real-world bitcoin adoption,” Back said.

A first for bitcoin treasuries

The in-kind PIPE allows investors to deliver BTC at closing and potentially capture upside before settlement. Back said the approach was designed to appeal to both crypto-native players and traditional managers seeking exposure without waiting for post-close market buys.

The firm's CIO Sean Bill, who previously helped a U.S. pension fund make one of the first institutional allocations to BTC, said the strategy resonated with traditional investors. "We’re building the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) of Bitcoin, an actively managed Treasury that will pursue yield and alpha strategies, and strategic acquisitions within the Bitcoin ecosystem”.

“We’re flipping the script on Wall Street as we seek to fuse Bitcoin into Finance and Capital Markets, unlike other Treasury companies we’re not coming to Wall Street seeking fiat currency to buy Bitcoin, we’re showing up with a 25,000 Bitcoin commitment and more importantly we issued the first ever Bitcoin in kind Equity PIPE in the United States, raising another 5,021 Bitcoins from OG Bitcoiners. We’re brining the Bitcoin to Wall Street. We believe that the future of finance runs on Bitcoin”,” Bill told CoinDesk exclusively.

Bridging bitcoin and Wall Street

The leadership team sees BSTR as a bridge between the bitcoin ecosystem and institutional capital markets.

“We’re bringing the traders, we’re bringing the bitcoiners to Wall Street,” Back said, noting the potential for the U.S. market’s liquidity to amplify the success of bitcoin-denominated convertibles that have already gained traction in Europe.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, with the company trading under the reserved ticker BSTO. If the raise is fully subscribed, the launch could set a new scale record for corporate bitcoin treasuries and offer a template for others looking to merge sound money with modern market instruments.