No two ways about it: It’s been a wild ride for tech stocks this year.
Tech stocks got out of the gate strong this year, lifted by fresh AI buzz and blowout earnings from big-tech heavyweights.
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However, that early optimism cooled off fast when April’s tariff shock slammed the Nasdaq, wiping out gains and weighing it down by more than 23% in just a few days.
To put things in perspective, that was the steepest plunge since the Covid crash.
Just as fast as the market bounced back, tariff jitters cooled, and relatively strong economic data rolled in, pushing the Nasdaq to end June with a slim gain.
However, amid all the choppiness, one tech stock continues to impress, posting double-digit gains despite the market’s wobbles, thanks to one powerful trend.
Companies turn to Bitcoin as a strategic reserve
It turns out that Bitcoin (~BTCUSD) has unexpectedly become corporate America’s safety net.
From fintech to insurance, big names have been silently stacking BTC for years in hedging against inflation, diversifying their balance sheets while keeping shareholders happy.
It kicked off in 2020 when hedge-fund legend Paul Tudor Jones called Bitcoin “the fastest horse” in hedging against inflation and low rates.
At the time, he parked roughly 2% of his assets in BTC, drawing Wall Street’s eyes to the digital gold narrative.
A few months later, in October, we saw the fintech world getting in on the act.
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In October 2020, Jack Dorsey’s Block scooped up about $50 million worth of Bitcoin as part of his economic empowerment mission. He turned things up a notch a few months later, adding another $170 million to grow its Cash App ecosystem.
Moreover, insurance companies like MassMutual picked up $100 million worth of Bitcoin in December 2020, adding an inflation buffer to its massive portfolio.
By early 2021, Tesla threw fuel on the fire. Elon Musk’s $1.5 billion Bitcoin buy and a short-lived plan to accept BTC for cars sent prices surging over 10% overnight.
Fast forward to mid-2025, and this robust strategy is now mainstream. According to Standard Chartered, 61 public companies unrelated to the crypto business currently hold Bitcoin reserves.
Companies and institutions, smart money alike, say it’s about guarding purchasing power and diversifying away from fiat risks.
Some even see it as a bold signal to attract new investors, with fresh buys rolling in each quarter and the Bitcoin-as-treasury trend growing at a rapid pace.
Strategy’s wild Bitcoin pivot hits jackpot territory
No other tech stock has squeezed more upside from a Bitcoin reserve strategy than Strategy (MSTR) stock, no pun intended.
CEO Michael Saylor’s bet to turn an otherwise sleepy enterprise software business into the world’s biggest corporate Bitcoin holder has been an absolute game-changer.
This pivot didn’t happen overnight, though.
Back in August 2020, Saylor stunned Mr. Market by declaring Bitcoin the company’s primary treasury reserve.
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The company then dropped a massive $250 million on 21,454 BTC, calling it “digital gold” and a much more effective hedge against inflation than cash rotting on its balance sheet.
He doubled down again and again. By the end of the year, the company’s haul had swelled to over 70,000 BTC.
By April 2021? More than 91,000 coins were funded mainly through debt and fresh stock sales.
Saylor pitched the entire move on becoming a proxy Bitcoin ETF while cutting out Wall Street middlemen with a relentless strategy of loading up, no matter what the market did.
By late last year, the stash had gone past an eye-popping 279,000 coins. In February 2025, the company leaned all the way in, rebranding from MicroStrategy to just “Strategy” while announcing a whopping $84 billion capital program to keep scooping up BTC through 2027.
Fast forward to now, and that aggressive playbook continues to pay dividends. Strategy looks poised to record a jaw-dropping $14 billion unrealized gain for the second quarter 2025.
A lot of that is due to the recent double-digit snapback in Bitcoin’s price and an accounting twist that lets the company book gains when prices rise.
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Previously, the rules compelled businesses to mark down Bitcoin’s value on dips but never mark it up unless coins were sold. That headache effectively led to Strategy posting a Q1 loss of $4.2 billion from BTC on paper.
Now, fair value accounting lets Strategy truly reflect Bitcoin’s resurgence.
Layer in the steady weekly buys of over $600 million, and the math is simple with 597,325 coins on the books at a $71,000 cost price, which trades close to $109,000.
For Saylor, the Bitcoin bet paid off and then some.
Meanwhile, Strategy’s stock has been on a monumental run over the past few years. It's up a head-spinning 2,300% over the past three years, beating the S&P 500’s 64% advance by a huge margin.
In the last year, the stock has surged 210% and more than 147% in the past nine months alone.
Year-to-date, Strategy is up close to 40%, dwarfing the S&P’s 7% bump, and even over six months, it’s beaten the index by more than threefold (19% vs. 5.7%).
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