Michael Saylor’s Strategy is Creating a New Bitcoin Scarcity

Bitcoin analyst Adam Livingston explained that his aggressive accumulation is far exceeding miner output, and it is predicted to fuel a Bitcoin supply crunch, drive up prices, and make borrowing BTC a lot more expensive. Despite the concerns about Strategy’s debt-fueled buying spree, experts like Saifedean Ammous argue that such concentration of Bitcoin ownership will not threaten the protocol itself, as institutions have no incentive to alter Bitcoin’s rules.

Meanwhile, the growing trend of corporate Bitcoin treasuries is strengthening the path toward hyperbitcoinization, a future where Bitcoin overtakes fiat as dominant global money. Blockstream CEO Adam Back described this shift as a rational arbitrage of fiat’s declining value. Governments like El Salvador also still continue their quiet Bitcoin accumulation, navigating international agreements with flexibility. Altogether, these trends mean that Bitcoin’s role in global finance is growing very quickly and irreversibly.

Bitcoin Could Get Much Scarcer

Michael Saylor’s company, Strategyis effectively “synthetically halving Bitcoin” by buying more than half of all newly mined BTC each month. This is according to Adam Livingstona Bitcoin analyst and author of The Bitcoin Age and The Great Harvest.

Miners currently produce around 450 BTC daily, which totals roughly 13,500 BTC per month, yet Strategy acquired an astonishing 379,800 BTC over the past six months. This means the firm purchased around 2,087 BTC per day, which is greatly exceeding the global daily miner output.

Livingston explained that this level of accumulation will make Bitcoin dramatically scarcer, and could push the asset into an environment where access will require paying large premiums. As a result, lending against Bitcoin will become increasingly expensive, borrowing BTC will be a luxury reserved for major corporations and nation-states, and Strategy will have a dominant influence over Bitcoin’s cost of capital.

Livingston’s prediction points to an impending Bitcoin supply crunchand suggests that if Strategy maintains this acquisition pace while institutional and retail demand grows, Bitcoin prices could soar much higher.

Despite the concerns over the sustainability of Strategy’s debt-fueled Bitcoin purchasesespecially if a prolonged bear market emerges, some Bitcoin advocates argue that Strategy’s dominance is not a threat to the protocol itself. Saifedean Ammouseconomist and author of The Bitcoin Standard, recently said that even if institutions like Strategy and BlackRock hold large portions of Bitcoin’s supplythey will have no incentive to manipulate the network’s rules, like increasing the maximum supply.

Doing so will devalue their holdings, which ultimately belong to shareholders who could move their investments elsewhere. Thus, while Strategy’s aggressive accumulation strategy is reshaping Bitcoin’s financial landscape, many believe it only strengthens Bitcoin’s fundamental scarcity rather than undermining its decentralized ethos.

Bitcoin Treasuries Are Fueling Hyperbitcoinization

Investment firms with Bitcoin-focused treasury strategies are increasingly front-running global Bitcoin adoptionand could potentially pave the way for the world’s first cryptocurrency to reach a $200 trillion market capitalization in the next decade. Institutions and governments are beginning to recognize Bitcoin’s unique monetary properties, according to Blockstream CEO and Hashcash inventor Adam Back.

In an April 26 post, Back described companies like Strategy as engaging in a logical and sustainable arbitrage of the gap between the current fiat world and a Bitcoin-driven future, a move scalable enough for most major listed companies to transition their treasuries to Bitcoin.

The phenomenon is known as hyperbitcoinizationwhere Bitcoin replaces fiat currencies as the dominant global money, and it is being fueled by Bitcoin’s consistent outpacing of fiat money inflation. Back explained that this is not a temporary trend but a rational and sustainable arbitrage play, driven by Bitcoin’s superior long-term price appreciation over inflation and interest rates across four-year periods. His comments were made after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a national Bitcoin reserve sourced from government-seized BTC.

Momentum for corporate Bitcoin accumulation is still growing. Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holderalready generated over $5.1 billion in profit from its Bitcoin treasury since the beginning of 2025, according to co-founder Michael Saylor. Japanese investment firm Metaplanetdubbed “Asia’s MicroStrategy,” also embraced this approach and even surpassed 5,000 BTC in holdings on April 24 and set a goal of reaching 21,000 BTC by 2026.

Top companies that hold Bitcoin (Source: Bitbo)

Meanwhile, the regulatory landscape in the United States is becoming a lot more favorable. The Federal Reserve’s withdrawal of its 2022 guidance discouraging banks from engaging with cryptocurrency opened the door for even more institutional participation.

Michael Saylor said that banks are now free to support Bitcoin. Nexo dispatch analyst Iliya Kalchev, agreed with this, and pointed out that banks will now be supervised through normal regulatory processes. This means that there is a much more open environment for digital asset integration. As financial institutions and corporations continue to move into Bitcoin, the foundation for hyperbitcoinization seems to be strengthening.

El Salvador Quietly Continues Bitcoin Buying

Certain countries are also making sure to stock up on Bitcoin. El Salvadorthe first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, is still quietly accumulating Bitcoin despite comments from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggesting otherwise.

In the seven days leading up to April 27, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office recorded the acquisition of 7 Bitcoin, which is valued at over $650,000. During an April 26 press briefingRodrigo Valdes, the director of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department, stated that El Salvador is still complying with its commitment under an IMF agreement to halt Bitcoin accumulation by the government’s fiscal sector.

El Salvador’s BTC holdings changes (Source: Bitcoin Office)

Valdes explained that the IMF’s program with El Salvador is focused not on Bitcoin but on broader structural reforms, including governance and transparency. This program was part of a $1.4 billion loan deal that was struck in December of 2024, which required El Salvador to stop treating Bitcoin as legal tender and cease government-led Bitcoin purchases.

However, there appears to be some flexibility in the interpretation of the agreement. According to blockchain adviser and author Anndy Lianthe “flexible interpretation” could mean that Bitcoin purchases are being conducted through non-governmental or reclassified entities, which allows the country to technically remain compliant with IMF conditions. Lian pointed out that this approach makes it possible for El Salvador to preserve its Bitcoin-friendly reputation while still securing vital IMF funding needed to manage public debt and financial reserves.

El Salvador’s strategy shed some light on the broader tension between financial innovation and traditional international economic frameworks. Lian suggested that the country’s experience provides important lessons for other nations considering crypto adoptionparticularly regarding the need for strong regulatory systems and the ability to balance domestic innovation with global financial expectations.