Bitcoin Price Prediction: Saylor Beats BlackRock, $170K Next

MIAMI, FLORIDA – APRIL 7: Michael Saylor, Chairman & CEO, MicroStrategy, speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022 in Miami, Florida. The worlds largest bitcoin conference runs from April 6-9, expecting over 30,000 people in attendance and over 7 million live stream viewers worldwide.(Photo by Marco Bello/Getty Images)

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Michael Saylor’s Strategy has done something almost nobody on Wall Street thought possible when he started buying bitcoin in 2020. The rebranded MicroStrategy now holds more of the asset than BlackRock’s IBIT, the world’s largest spot bitcoin ETF.

“Strategy has acquired 34,164 BTC for ~$2.54 billion at ~$74,395 per bitcoin and has achieved BTC Yield of 9.5% YTD 2026,” Saylor posted on X on April 20. “As of 4/19/2026, we hodl 815,061 $BTC acquired for ~$61.56 billion at ~$75,527 per bitcoin.”

On the same day, tracker @thepowerfulHRV put BlackRock’s IBIT at 802,823 bitcoin, a figure corroborated by ApolloSats co-founder Thomas Fahrer’s running tally. “Blackrock Buys 3899 BTC Now hold 798,000 Bitcoin That’s 16K so far this month 🔥,” Fahrer posted on April 16. IBIT has since kept accumulating, hitting a reported 806,700 coins by April 24, but the gap has not closed.

The flip in rankings is small in bitcoin terms, a little over 8,000 coins, but symbolically huge. A single software company with a balance sheet strategy has outpaced the biggest asset manager on the planet in accumulating the asset BlackRock itself has lobbied Washington to legitimize.

“MICHAEL SAYLOR’S STRATEGY NOW ESTIMATED TO HOLD MORE #BITCOIN THAN BLACKROCK,” wrote Pete Rizzo, a former CoinDesk and Bitcoin Magazine editor who now tracks corporate holdings for BTC Treasuries. “$60,000,000,000 WORTH OF BTC AND COUNTING THE LARGEST INSTITUTIONAL HODLER IN THE WORLD THE UNDISPUTED KING 👑.”

The overtake comes with bitcoin trading near $78,000, inside a quiet range that retail traders and creators are treating as a generational accumulation zone rather than a top. The milestone lands against an unusually wide stack of Wall Street 2026 targets.

JPMorgan’s near-term bull case, cited in multiple April investor notes, puts bitcoin at $170,000 over the next six to twelve months, with the bank’s analysts keeping a $266,000 “gold parity” scenario as a long-term theoretical ceiling. Citigroup trimmed its 2026 base case to $112,000 in March, down from $143,000 at the end of 2025, after U.S. crypto legislation stalled. Galaxy Digital chief executive Mike Novogratz has kept a public $500,000 target on the table but has said it depends on the U.S. government building a strategic bitcoin reserve, an outcome he himself calls low probability.

For bulls, the appeal of the Saylor bid is mechanical, not emotional. YouTube channel JM Crypto walked viewers through what it called Strategy’s “zero-dilution” funding loop in a mid-April breakdown, describing how 11.5% yielding STRC perpetual preferred stock is funneled straight into spot bitcoin, a mechanic covered in more depth in the $150,000 piece.

“MicroStrategy surpassed BlackRock’s IBIT as the largest institutional Bitcoin holder after aggressively buying during the bear market, reaching ~815,000 BTC and overtaking the spot ETF’s roughly 800,000,” equity trader J. Reardon wrote on April 21. Strategy says it still has more than $26 billion in at-the-market capacity on its common shares and $1.6 billion left on its STRF preferred vehicle, a runway Saylor has publicly earmarked for a push toward 1 million coins by year-end.

“Strategy has generated 6.2% BTC Yield and ₿47,079 of BTC Gain in the first three weeks of April, worth approximately $3.6 billion,” Saylor posted on April 21. “BTC Gain is the closest analog to Net Income on the Bitcoin Standard.”

Not everyone buys the setup. “I don’t expect a new ATH in 2026. Min Correction targets: 93–107K by year-end,” trader @ahmadsaad983 posted on April 19. STRC pays out 11.5% a year and common-stock dividends on STRF add more cash obligations, so a drift in the $70,000s could force Strategy to tap its ATM at depressed prices, exactly the reflexive loop bulls are counting on, run in reverse.

Web3 creator @CryptoWithYami flagged $150,000 as a conservative 2026 exit and $200,000 as the “aggressive” upside, a ceiling well below the Wall Street consensus. Retail technician @AaRon317132 pushed back directly on the upper end of the JPMorgan range: “JPM says $266,000 BTC in 2026. My current theory estimate: 163-178k.”

Bitcoin is still about 28% below its 2025 all-time high near $109,000, ETF flows are flat on the month, and the Federal Reserve has yet to deliver the easing cycle Arthur Hayes and other bulls say is the real catalyst.

Saylor’s own deadline is what now matters. His 1 million coin goal needs roughly 185,000 more BTC by the end of 2026, a $14 billion shopping list at today’s prices. “As of 4/19/2026, we hodl 815,061 $BTC acquired for ~$61.56 billion at ~$75,527 per bitcoin,” Saylor posted on April 20. Eight months and change to go.