In August 2020, Michael Saylor made a decision that corporate finance textbooks hadn’t anticipated: he took MicroStrategy’s cash reserves — money sitting in bonds earning near-zero — and bought Bitcoin. The thesis was simple: the dollar was being debased, Bitcoin was finite, and holding cash was a guaranteed losing proposition in a low-rate world.
Six years later, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy, ticker MSTR) holds 845,050 Bitcoin — approximately 4% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist. The stock has outperformed Bitcoin itself because markets assigned a premium to the treasury structure: owning a public company that accumulates Bitcoin at scale, without paying the taxes on the underlying asset directly.
The playbook worked spectacularly. It also created a new problem for everyone who tried to copy it.
The MicroStrategy Playbook
Strategy’s model is elegant in its simplicity:
- Issue convertible bonds at very low interest rates (often 0.625–1.75%)
- Use proceeds to buy Bitcoin
- Bitcoin appreciates
- Issue more bonds
- Buy more Bitcoin
The flywheel works at Strategy’s scale because the cost of capital (the bond interest rate) is far below Bitcoin’s historical appreciation rate. At 1% interest and 60% average annual appreciation, the math is extraordinary.
The catch: this model requires access to the investment-grade bond market. You need to be a large-enough public company that institutional bond buyers trust your paper. For the 99% of Bitcoin treasury aspirants who don’t have Strategy’s balance sheet, the model doesn’t work — they’re paying 8–12% for capital while hoping Bitcoin does enough to cover it.
The Second Wave: Mining Companies
The second wave of Bitcoin treasury companies was Bitcoin miners — Riot Platforms, MARA Holdings, CleanSpark. They earn Bitcoin through mining operations and hold it rather than sell. This gives them a cost basis that’s tied to energy costs rather than market price.
Mining companies solve the carry problem differently: they generate Bitcoin at below-market cost. But they’re exposed to mining economics — energy prices, equipment depreciation, regulatory risk, and the halving cycle that cuts block rewards every four years.
For institutional investors, mining companies are a leveraged, operationally complex way to get Bitcoin exposure. They’re not portfolio solutions.
The Third Wave: Operating Company Pivots
Metaplanet, Bitplanet, and dozens of other operating companies have transformed their businesses around Bitcoin treasury accumulation. They use equity issuances to buy Bitcoin, measure performance in BTC per share, and pursue the public market premium that accrues to companies that story their Bitcoin holdings compellingly.
These are the most interesting companies in the third wave because they demonstrate that any business with a credible operating story and access to public markets can participate in the Bitcoin treasury premium. Metaplanet’s stock rose nearly 190% year-to-date in 2025 while holding a hotel and accumulating BTC.
The challenge: most of these companies have thin operating businesses relative to their Bitcoin treasury ambitions. The gap between the story and the underlying economics is real, and sophisticated investors notice.
The BARS Fund Model: The Fourth Wave
BARS Fund represents what we believe is the next evolution: a Bitcoin treasury that generates its own income to cover the cost of holding Bitcoin.
Rather than issuing equity to buy BTC (diluting existing holders), or borrowing at high rates and hoping appreciation covers it, we use music royalty income — predictable, contractually obligated, uncorrelated cash flows — to service the debt that funds our Bitcoin purchases.
This produces an outcome no previous wave achieved: a self-financing Bitcoin treasury. The carry problem is solved structurally, not by scale or market access.
For institutional investors, this is significant:
- No dilution of equity to fund Bitcoin purchases
- No reliance on Bitcoin appreciation to cover debt costs
- Real asset collateral (music IP) behind the structure
- Uncorrelated income stream that performs regardless of Bitcoin’s short-term price
The evolution of Bitcoin treasury strategy follows a clear arc: from pure speculation (Wave 1), to operational generation (Wave 2), to brand-driven accumulation (Wave 3), to income-backed treasury (Wave 4). BARS Fund is building Wave 4.
Further reading: Strategy’s Bitcoin Ledger | Corporate Bitcoin Buying Analysis — Bitcoin Magazine
Erik Mendelson is the founder and CEO of BARS Fund. Contact: erik@recordgram.com