Strategy estimated a $4.1 billion income-tax benefit after Bitcoin's fair value rose above cost as of Sept. 30, according to its Oct. 5 filing. The benefit comes from a lower estimated tax expense through an accounting adjustment.

The filing shows what can change when Bitcoin crosses a large holder’s cost basis. The next consequence depends on the position being measured: a company’s Bitcoin holdings, an ETF’s underlying assets and an investor’s ETF shares each have their own purchase history.

Strategy said it reversed a deferred tax asset related to its Bitcoin and released the associated valuation allowance. These management-prepared financial figures had neither been audited nor reviewed by KPMG.

The estimated benefit concerns the company’s own tax accounts and its September valuation-allowance adjustment.

The company disclosed 848,000 BTC at an average purchase price of $75,440.70, including fees and expenses, as of Oct. 4 at 4 p.m. Eastern time. That later acquisition figure has a separate cutoff from the Sept. 30 accounting comparison.

An ETF acquisition estimate measures the fund’s underlying holdings. Maketo estimated the average cost of Bitcoin remaining in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) at $81,188 per BTC as of Oct. 2. Its model reconstructs underlying Bitcoin costs from daily money flows and prices.

An IBIT shareholder buys shares at a market price, so investors entering on different dates can have different break-even prices, even though their shares represent interests in the same pool of Bitcoin. The fund’s estimated acquisition cost measures a different position from each shareholder’s investment.

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