Bitcoin Strategy Rakes in $5.8B Annually—Now Targets 25% Yield (Because Wall Street’s 2% Just Won’t Cut It)
Forget bonds and boring savings accounts—this Bitcoin yield strategy just printed $5.8 billion in annual gains. Now it’s doubling down, hiking its BTC target to a 25% return. Because when your hedge fund manager charges 2-and-20 for mediocre results, why not let code do the heavy lifting?
The playbook? A mix of algorithmic trading, staking, and—let’s be honest—sheer crypto volatility. While traditional finance struggles to hit single-digit returns, Bitcoin’s wild swings keep minting opportunities for those with iron stomachs and sharp algorithms.
Cynics will call it unsustainable. The rest of us? We’re watching the yield revolution play out in real-time—no permission needed.
BTC Yield, BTC Gain, and BTC $ Gain
Strategy tracks three internal performance indicators related to its Bitcoin strategy: BTC Yield, BTC Gain, and BTC $ Gain.
These are not accounting metrics but rather internal key performance indicators intended to illustrate the effects of the company’s capital deployment on its per-share Bitcoin exposure.
BTC Yield represents the percentage change in the ratio between Bitcoin holdings and Assumed Diluted Shares Outstanding. As of April 28, the year-to-date BTC Yield was 13.7%, with a Q1 figure of 11%.
The company defines Assumed Diluted Shares Outstanding as the sum of basic shares and all convertible instruments treated as shares, regardless of vesting or exercise conditions.
BTC Gain expresses the outcome of BTC Yield in Bitcoin terms. Strategy achieved a BTC Gain of 49,131 BTC in the first quarter, growing to 61,497 BTC year-to-date.
BTC $ Gain, in turn, translates that gain into dollar terms using spot Bitcoin prices. Based on a BTC price of approximately $95,000 on April 28, the company calculated the BTC $ Gain at $5.8 billion year-to-date.
Accounting changes and unrealized fair value losses
On Jan. 1, Strategy adopted ASU 2023-08, a fair value accounting standard for digital assets. This change led to a $12.7 billion increase in retained earnings at the beginning of the year, aligning reported net income more closely with market fluctuations in Bitcoin pricing.
Despite the accounting shift, the firm reported an unrealized fair value loss of $5.9 billion for the first quarter, driven by the quarter-end BTC price of $82,445.
However, with the price recovering to approximately $97,300 by late April, the company estimates a fair value gain of roughly $8 billion for the second quarter thus far.
As of March 31, Strategy held 528,185 BTC with a cost basis of $35.6 billion and a market value of $43.5 billion. The firm’s average acquisition price was $67,457 per BTC.
Strategic capital deployment
In addition to the ATM common stock offering, Strategy issued $2 billion in 0% convertible senior notes due 2030 and completed two preferred stock IPOs, Strike and Strife, raising over $1.2 billion combined.
These instruments contributed to the company’s aggregate net proceeds of $10 billion during the first four months of 2025.
Strategy used the proceeds from these issuances to acquire additional Bitcoin, supporting the company’s stated objective of increasing BTC per-share exposure. The company now has $20.9 billion in capacity remaining under its STRK ATM offering agreement.
While these KPIs reflect Strategy’s internal assessment of capital efficiency relative to Bitcoin accumulation, the firm emphasized that the metrics do not account for liabilities or dividend obligations on preferred stock.
Management also noted that the market shouldn’t see these KPIs as traditional financial return metrics. With the adjustments to its annual BTC performance targets and the adoption of fair value accounting, Strategy aims to maintain its positioning as a capital markets vehicle for Bitcoin exposure.
