‘We buy real Bitcoin’- Michael Saylor rejects ‘paper BTC’ claims

After dealing with the threat of MSCI index exclusion, the pioneer in Bitcoin corporate treasury, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), is facing another FUD. 

Some community members claimed the firm has been buying derivatives or “rehypothecated” coins, also known as paper BTC. 

However, Michael Saylor, founder and chairman of Strategy, dismissed these claims and clarified, 

“We buy real Bitcoin. We audit our custodians. We don’t rehypothecate. You shouldn’t either.”

Strategy faces scrutiny over BTC holdings

Currently, Strategy holds 712K BTC, with most of the stash accumulated in the past two years. In 2024, the firm invested about $20 billion in Bitcoin [BTC] and added another $23 billion in the crypto asset in 2025.

So far, in 2026, it has poured close to $4 billion into the crypto asset and acquired over 40K BTC. 

Source: CryptoQuant

Interestingly, the 2026 bid rivaled even the 11,700 BTC mined this year. To some analysts, such as Jesse Myers, this meant the asset would eventually rally amid the supply crunch. 

But the price charts have been muted despite the Strategy’s aggressive multi-billion-dollar BTC bids. 

This got Jameson Lopp, a security researcher and Founder of the BTC custody platform CasaHODL, wondering whether he’s actually buying the real BTC. He posed, 

“Your thesis is sensible (BTC rallying as Strategy buys more)… under the assumption that he’s buying real bitcoin.”

He questioned whether the firm can verify that its holdings aren’t being used by its custodians for other purposes. 

“Does Strategy actually verify that their Bitcoin only belongs to them and isn’t rehypothecated? I’m skeptical.”

Strategy’s +110K BTC untraceable

Strategy currently uses three custodians to store its BTC: Coinbase, Anchorage, and Anchorage Digital. About 420K BTC of Strategy stash is held at Coinbase and Anchorage, and is traceable because they use segregated addresses, according to an on-chain analyst. 

In fact, the stash held by these two custodians is also tracked by Arkham, which estimates it at 415K BTC.

Over 183K BTC was reportedly sent to Fidelity Custody, but since it doesn’t separate wallets like Coinbase and Anchorage, it becomes challenging to track these holdings. 

Source: Arkham

That leaves over 110K BTC unaccounted for across these three custodians, noted analyst Sani. In fact, this is the main contention and what critics use to question whether Strategy really holds the entire +700K BTC it claims to own. 

At press time, Saylor didn’t respond to social media calls to share ‘proofs’ of the holdings of the untraceable BTC.

Meanwhile, Strategy’s MSTR stock price slid about 2% to $157.45 at press time. This followed BTC’s 1.5% decline after the FOMC meeting.  

Final Thoughts 

• Saylor denied claims that his firm has been buying ‘paper BTC’ or rehypothecating its holdings for other purposes. 
• Over 110K BTC owned by Strategy aren’t traceable, while over 185K BTC held at Fidelity Custody can’t be verified.