In the summer of 2020, Michael Saylor — then-CEO of what was, at the time, called MicroStrategy (MSTR) — made a decision that would upend the financial strategy of his publicly-traded company and ripple across corporate boardrooms for years to come.

Initially created as a business intelligence software firm, the company now known as Strategy was sitting on over $500 million in cash. But Saylor saw that money not as a cushion but as a melting block of ice. With inflation ticking up and interest rates near zero, holding dollars seemed riskier than ever.

So instead of parking that cash in bonds or stock buybacks, Saylor went all in on bitcoin BTC$92,123.27. He called it the world’s “apex asset” — scarce, decentralized, and, in his view, structurally immune to inflation. By August 2020, MicroStrategy had purchased its first 21,000 bitcoin for $250 million. The company kept buying. The move wasn’t just unusual — it was unprecedented. And it marked the birth of the digital asset treasury strategy: using crypto, primarily bitcoin, as a corporate reserve asset.

That playbook gained new momentum in 2024 when Wall Street finally opened the door to mainstream crypto investing. After years of back-and-forth with regulators, the SEC approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January, followed by spot ether ETH$3,033.72 ETFs in May. Institutional access exploded.

Also in May, publicly-traded medical device maker Semler Scientific announced that it had purchased bitcoin as part of a new corporate treasury strategy modeled directly on Strategy’s. The decision came as a surprise from a healthcare company with no ties to digital assets, but company chairman Eric Semler had been a long-time observer of the crypto-ecosystem and the company said the asset’s long-term potential made it a smarter place for idle capital than fiat. Other firms followed with small-cap tech firms and even non-tech manufacturers disclosing digital asset holdings in earnings reports.

Strategy — now rebranded as a bitcoin development company (with Saylor serving as its executive chairman) — saw its stock surge more than 350% in 2024 as demand for bitcoin soared. After surviving through a difficult 2022 when bitcoin plunged as low as the $15,000 range, Saylor's and Stategy's early bet paid off.

But not everyone who tried the strategy saw lasting results. For example, Semler Scientific, despite early investor enthusiasm and the accumulation of more than 5,000 bitcoin, has seen its shares tumble 54% this year, now sitting below the level at which they stood prior to the company buying bitcoin. In September, it agreed to merge with another struggling bitcoin treasury company, Strive (ASST), but the shares of both have sunk even further.

Spread to altcoins

Taking note of Saylor's success, attention widened beyond bitcoin. Ether came first, with Joe Lubin and Tom Lee each helming companies devoted to accumulating ETH tokens. Speculation about future altcoin ETFs — including for Solana, XRP and others — sparked even further interest in diversifying corporate crypto treasuries. Some firms, looking to differentiate or align with emerging networks, began accumulating other tokens. Nasdaq-traded Trident Digital, for example, added XRP to its treasury in June 2025.

The strategy, though, was also exploited. A flood of penny stocks and obscure microcap firms began using bitcoin as a headline tool, not an investment thesis. These companies had no real exposure to digital assets as a business — no mining rigs, no blockchain products. But they saw what happened to Strategy’s stock and tried to replicate it. The formula became familiar: issue a press release touting a pivot to crypto, announce a small bitcoin or solana purchase, and watch the stock briefly spike. In many cases, it worked — for a day or two.

Amid collapsing stock prices, some treasury companies have been forced to alter parts of their strategy — even to the point of selling crypto to raise cash for share buybacks. Ethereum-focused ETHZilla (ETHZ), once praised for building an ether-based corporate treasury, disclosed last week that it sold roughly $40 million in ETH from its reserves. It has used part of the cash to buy back its own stock, as the company’s market value fell below the value of its crypto holdings and has pledged to continue repurchases, if needed. It’s a reminder that price swings can cut both ways, even for companies holding what they consider “hard assets.”

Still, for all the companies that have tried, no one has matched what Strategy has done. Its balance sheet now holds more than 641,000 BTC – 3% of the total supply. Michael Saylor, once a niche enterprise software executive, is now one of bitcoin’s most recognizable advocates. And while plenty of other CEOs have dabbled in the digital asset treasury approach, none has earned the same level of credibility.

Whether the strategy becomes a fixture of modern finance or fades as a speculative bubble remains unclear. For now, it’s Michael Saylor’s game — everyone else is just trying to play it.