Strategy has extended its longest pause in bitcoin purchases since 2024 after selling 1,638 BTC and redirecting the proceeds toward preferred-share repurchases, dividend obligations and a $4 billion restricted cash reserve.
The company sold the bitcoin between July 27 and Aug. 2 for $104.7 million, according to an Aug. 3 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It also raised $290.6 million by issuing roughly 3.01 million shares of MSTR common stock, bringing total proceeds for the period to about $395 million.
Rather than add to its bitcoin holdings, Strategy used $81.2 million to repurchase its STRC floating-rate preferred shares and placed $250 million of the common-stock proceeds into its restricted dollar reserve. The filing showed that another $11.7 million was retained for working capital.
The transactions place more emphasis on managing the company’s financing structure than on expanding its already large bitcoin position. Strategy’s bitcoin-buying pause has now lasted six weeks, a marked break from the acquisition strategy that has defined the company since 2020.
STRC support has become a near-term priority
Strategy’s recent capital decisions revolve around STRC, a floating-rate preferred stock that has traded below its $100 par value since May. A sustained discount makes it harder for the company to issue new preferred shares near par, limiting a funding route Strategy has used to support its balance sheet and, at times, purchase bitcoin.
The company raised STRC’s annualized dividend rate to 12% and began buying shares in the secondary market. During the latest reporting period, Strategy spent $52.3 million of bitcoin-sale proceeds and $28.9 million of common-stock proceeds to repurchase 912,143 STRC shares, according to the SEC filing.
That followed $25 million spent during the preceding week to acquire 288,930 STRC shares at an average price of $86.53 each. Since the program began in July, Strategy has repurchased about $106.2 million worth of STRC.
The company still has $893.8 million authorized for STRC buybacks. Its separate $1 billion authorization to repurchase MSTR common stock remained unused, the filing said.
Repurchasing discounted preferred shares can reduce the number of securities on which Strategy must pay dividends, while potentially helping the stock trade closer to its stated value. The approach also uses capital that might otherwise have been deployed into bitcoin, creating a more visible trade-off between bitcoin accumulation and balance-sheet protection.
Cash reserve reaches $4 billion
Strategy’s restricted U.S. dollar reserve reached $4 billion after the latest allocation, according to the filing. The reserve stood at $2.55 billion at the end of June and had grown to $3.75 billion by July 26.
The funds are restricted for preferred dividends and interest payments on outstanding debt unless Strategy’s board approves another use. In June, the company estimated that its annual preferred dividends and debt interest would total about $1.76 billion. At that run rate, the newly reported reserve would cover roughly 27 months of payments.
That reserve gives Strategy a larger liquidity cushion during periods when its preferred shares trade below par or when selling new securities becomes more expensive. It also reduces the immediate need to depend on bitcoin sales for routine financing needs, though the company has now used bitcoin disposals as part of that reserve-building effort.
Strategy’s BTC monetization plan permits bitcoin sales to add as much as $1.25 billion to its U.S. dollar reserves. Under the plan, proceeds can fund preferred dividends, debt interest and repurchases of preferred or common shares. Sales above that limit, or sales for other purposes, require further board approval.
Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said Strategy had never operated under a policy of never selling bitcoin. He added that the monetization plan had been disclosed on June 29, 31 days before the company’s second-quarter earnings release, and said long-term net bitcoin buying could resume if STRC regains its ability to fund the balance sheet at a lower cost.
Bitcoin sales increase while per-share exposure falls
Strategy has sold 5,258 bitcoin so far this year, its largest annual disposal volume since it began accumulating the asset in 2020, according to the filing. The total includes 32 bitcoin sold in late May, 1,363 sold on June 29 and June 30, 2,225 sold during the first five days of July, and the latest 1,638-bitcoin sale.
The sales and share issuance have also weakened Strategy’s bitcoin-per-share figures. Its year-to-date BTC yield — the percentage change in bitcoin holdings per diluted MSTR share — fell to 3.5% from 13.3% at the end of May. For the current quarter to date, the metric stood at negative 4.6%.
Strategy defines BTC gain as the estimated quantity of bitcoin implied by the BTC yield calculation. The company cautions that BTC yield and BTC gain are not measures of shareholder return, revenue, cash flow or debt-servicing capacity.
The distinction matters because Strategy’s long-standing appeal to many traders has rested partly on the premise that its financing activity could increase bitcoin exposure on a per-share basis. Issuing common shares while reducing total bitcoin holdings reverses that effect, at least over the reported period.
Holdings remain among the market’s largest corporate positions
Despite the recent sales, Strategy reported holding 842,138 bitcoin, equal to about 4% of bitcoin’s 21 million maximum supply. The company’s total acquisition cost was $63.51 billion, or an average of $75,419 per bitcoin.
At the bitcoin price cited in the filing of about $62,633, those holdings were valued near $52.7 billion, roughly $10.8 billion below their aggregate purchase cost.
Strategy’s latest actions do not abandon its bitcoin-focused corporate model, but they place the model under stricter funding discipline. The company is using part of its bitcoin inventory and equity-raising capacity to stabilize preferred-share financing, meet fixed obligations and build a cash buffer before returning to large-scale purchases.
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