Bitcoin Has Likely Bottomed as Strategy Shows Resilience Amid Plunge: Bernstein

Strategy showed its doubters that the Bitcoin-buying firm can weather the depths of crypto’s bear market and still extend its lead as the asset’s largest corporate holder, analysts at investment bank Bernstein wrote in a note on Tuesday.

Although some onlookers feared that Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) could pare its Bitcoin holdings to survive the digital asset’s latest plunge from all-time highs, the analysts wrote that the company’s balance sheet appears to be on solid footing as Bitcoin shows signs of a recovery.

The analysts wrote that Bitcoin’s price has likely bottomed, after tumbling from a peak price of $126,000 in October to $63,000 last month. They foresee the digital asset pushing to $150,000 by the end of the year, a 114% increase from Bitcoin’s current $70,000 price level.

Users on Myriad—a prediction market platform operated by Decrypt‘s parent company, Dastan—are evenly split on Bitcoin’s short-term prospects, however, giving roughly 50/50 odds to whether the price of BTC will next rise to $84,000 or fall to $55,000.

Bernstein analysts highlighted Strategy’s ability to grow its stockpile amid Bitcoin’s tumble. So far this year, the company has added around 86,000 Bitcoin to its stash, lifting its total holdings to 762,099 Bitcoin. The sum was valued at roughly $53.2 billion on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, Strategy is set to notch its second-largest quarterly haul since the company started accumulating Bitcoin in 2020, the analysts noted. That’s despite a 20% drawdown in Bitcoin’s price since 2026 began, they added.

In the note, the analysts highlighted Strategy’s STRC. They wrote that the dividend-paying product has enabled Strategy to continue buying Bitcoin at an aggressive pace without running the risk of diluting the Bitcoin-buying firm’s common shareholders through routine issuance.

Not long after STRC debuted last year, Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor described the product that currently pays 11.5% in dividends annually as fit for consumers. Lately, the company’s flagship preferred share has emerged on peers’ balance sheets.

The analysts reiterated an “Outperform” rating and $450 price target. Strategy’s shares changed hands around $136, a 58% decline over the past six months, according to Yahoo Finance.

The notion that Bitcoin’s price has bottomed conflicts with the long-running notion and historical trend that the digital asset’s price moves in four-year cycles. Bernstein analysts argued that Bitcoin’s market structure has matured alongside the debut exchange-traded funds in the U.S.

“Strategy acts as the ‘Bitcoin bank of last resort’ and Bitcoin ETFs are attracting more resilient (and less speculative) sources of capital,” they wrote. “Bitcoin’s resilient capital base is growing.”