A MERGED TESLA-SPACEX WOULD HOLD 30,221 BITCOIN — STILL 6,597 FEWER THAN STRIVE — ABOUT 3.6% OF STRATEGY’S STACK

Elon Musk said on SpaceX's October 20 earnings call that combining SpaceX and Tesla would be a good idea, CoinDesk reports, and that "the special committees have not reached agreement on the terms of any transaction." Both companies hold bitcoin. SpaceX reported 18,712 coins as of June 30, bought for $661 million. Tesla reported 11,509, bought for $386 million.

Put together, that's 30,221 bitcoin for about $1.047 billion, or roughly $34,645 a coin. It sounds big. It's still 6,597 fewer than Strive's 36,818, and about 3.6% of Strategy's 848,517. A merger adds two piles that already exist. It doesn't buy a single new coin.

Strive's CEO saw the race coming. "How would I feel if tomorrow I wake up and Elon doubled his Bitcoin stack in Tesla? I'd actually be happy," Matt Cole told Stephan Livera on January 15. Nobody doubled anything. Both of Musk's companies show the same count on December 31 and June 30.

Tesla filed its third-quarter update on October 21. It carries $962 million of digital assets at September 30, which is what 11,509 bitcoin were worth at that day's close of about $83,556, so the count looks unchanged. The 10-Q will say for sure. Either way, the bitcoin story in Musk's merger is how small the stack is next to the companies built to buy it. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $84,134.