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BlackRock, one of the world's largest asset management firms and a key player in the Bitcoin ecosystem, has been ranked as the third-largest Bitcoin holder across the globe.
Although BlackRock is globally renowned for its extreme focus on Bitcoin, the recent ranking by Arkham researchers has positioned the firm above Strategy, which is believed to hold more $BTC.
Did BlackRock actually flip Strategy?
While Arkham released a report confirming that BlackRock currently holds about 764,000 $BTC, commentators have argued that placing it behind only Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto and the leading U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase may have been an unfair ranking.
The report shows that only Satoshi and Coinbase control more Bitcoin than BlackRock, as they hold 1,096,000 $BTC and 970,000 $BTC respectively.
While BlackRock's outperformance against Binance has been justified, as the exchange only accounts for about 670,000 $BTC, questions about whether BlackRock actually holds more Bitcoin than Strategy have continued to stir debates.
Strategy still Bitcoin's largest corporate holder
Although Strategy remains the largest publicly traded corporate holder of Bitcoin, with total holdings of 847,000 $BTC that typically outweigh BlackRock's total holdings, the report provided justifiable reasons why BlackRock has been ranked above Strategy as the largest Bitcoin-holding entity.
The report confirmed that a large portion of Strategy's 847,000 $BTC is held through custodial arrangements, with about 184,000 $BTC of the total holdings stored in Fidelity Custody.
As such, Strategy is left with about 663,000 $BTC, which places it below BlackRock in the ranking, as not all of Strategy's holdings are directly reflected under its entity profile.
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