It's a duel between two giants: BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) temporarily held more BTC than Michael Saylor's company MicroStrategy. According to data from BitMEX Research, BlackRock's IBIT held 197,943 BTC worth more than USD 13.5 billion at the close of trading on March 8.

BlackRock's ETF has only been listed on the exchange since January and quickly became popular among both institutional and retail investors. This interest goes hand in hand with new price records, as the largest cryptocurrency exceeded USD 71,000 for the first time yesterday.

BlackRock's success with IBIT is an indication of Bitcoin's institutional adoption. In total, the various Bitcoin ETFs already have more than four percent of all BTC in circulation, equivalent to about 800,000 BTC currently worth about USD 60 billion.

Reports on X indicate that over-the-counter Bitcoin trading platforms are gradually running out of BTC due to the huge buying pressure. They are therefore turning to public exchanges to execute orders, but their BTC stocks are also dwindling.

Bitcoin perma-bull Michael Saylor shouldn't be too upset, however. After all, unlike BlackRock, his company has been buying Bitcoin for years, not on behalf of clients, but for its own portfolio.

MicroStrategy (MSTR) shares have already been labeled a "leveraged Bitcoin ETF" because of its Bitcoin-focused strategy. So far, the plan has worked, as MSTR has risen more than 640 percent in the past 12 months and has even outperformed BTC.

At the time of writing, MicroStrategy had "only" 193,000 BTC in its portfolio. However, the crypto market is getting stronger, and Michael Saylor immediately countered by buying another 12,000 BTC, bringing his company's total to 205,000 BTC and putting it back in the lead.