Physical Bitcoin coin beside a smartphone displaying the Strategy logo with a Bitcoin symbol
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Strategy Resumes Bitcoin Purchases, Adds $75.7 Million as BTC Nears $85,000

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Key Takeaways

  • Strategy bought 950 BTC for $75.7 million at $79,670 per coin, ending a roughly three-week pause and bringing total holdings to about 846,000 BTC.
  • The purchase came above the company’s $74,417 average cost basis, funded from a $5 billion USD reserve that also covered STRC share buybacks and preferred dividends.
  • MSTR shares rose 7% in pre-market trading alongside Bitcoin’s rally, underscoring how closely the stock now tracks the company’s Bitcoin holdings.

Strategy acquired 950 Bitcoin for $75.7 million last week at an average price of $79,670 per coin, marking the company’s first weekly Bitcoin purchase since late August. The purchase came as Bitcoin’s price climbed toward $85,000, gaining 5.9% over the prior 24 hours.

First Purchase in Roughly Three Weeks

Strategy, led by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, disclosed the purchase in a regulatory filing Monday. The filing marks a return to Bitcoin accumulation after the company went roughly three weeks without adding to its holdings. The pause stood out against Strategy’s typically frequent buying pattern since it began treating Bitcoin as its primary treasury asset.

The company now holds approximately 846,000 BTC in total, acquired for $63.81 billion at an average purchase price of $74,417 per coin. Last week’s purchase price of $79,670 came in above that running average, meaning the newest tranche of coins was acquired at a premium to the company’s overall cost basis.

That premium is not unusual for a company that has continued buying through multiple market cycles rather than timing purchases to specific price levels. 

Strategy’s average cost basis reflects years of accumulation across periods of both higher and lower Bitcoin prices, meaning any single week’s purchase price can sit above or below that blended figure depending on where Bitcoin is trading at the time.

How the Purchase Was Funded

Strategy funded the Bitcoin purchase using $75.7 million from its USD reserve, according to the filing. The company separately used $174 million in USD cash to fund repurchases of its STRC preferred shares and $57.4 million from the USD reserve to cover dividend payments on its preferred stock.

Following those transactions, Strategy’s USD reserve stood at $5 billion and its separate USD cash balance stood at $1 billion. 

The company’s practice is to draw on multiple distinct cash pools, rather than a single treasury account, to fund Bitcoin purchases, share buybacks, and preferred dividends. This reflects the increasingly layered capital structure Strategy has built around its Bitcoin accumulation strategy, which now involves several classes of preferred equity alongside its common stock.

The simultaneous use of company funds for Bitcoin purchases, STRC share repurchases and preferred dividend payments in the same week illustrates how Strategy now manages several concurrent financial obligations tied to its capital-markets activity, beyond the Bitcoin buying that draws the most public attention. 

The preferred stock program, which pays regular dividends to investors, represents an ongoing cash commitment that runs alongside, rather than in competition with, the company’s continued Bitcoin accumulation.

Shares Rally Alongside Bitcoin’s Price

Strategy’s stock, which trades under the ticker MSTR, rose 7% in pre-market trading following the disclosure, moving in tandem with Bitcoin’s broader rally toward $85,000. 

The stock’s close correlation with Bitcoin’s price reflects Strategy’s business model, in which the company’s equity value has become closely tied to the market value of its Bitcoin holdings rather than to a traditional operating business.

The resumption of purchases, even at a price above the company’s average cost basis, signals that Strategy continued its accumulation strategy through the recent price recovery rather than waiting for a pullback to resume buying. 

The pause and subsequent return to purchasing illustrates how the company’s buying activity has become one of the more closely watched indicators of institutional sentiment toward Bitcoin, given the size and consistency of its holdings relative to other public companies.

Strategy’s roughly 846,000 BTC holding represents a significant share of Bitcoin’s fixed 21 million coin supply. This is a position built through years of continuous purchases funded by a mix of equity issuance, convertible debt, and preferred stock offerings rather than operating cash flow from a traditional business line. 

That accumulation approach has made the company’s quarterly and weekly purchase disclosures a regular fixture for market participants tracking corporate Bitcoin demand alongside exchange-traded fund flows and other institutional buying activity.

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