Strategy Adds $525M to Cash Reserve, Skips Bitcoin Buy for Fifth Week

Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy went a fifth straight week without buying Bitcoin, adding $525 million to its cash reserve instead and lifting the balance to $3.75 billion.

Strategy sold 5,429,160 shares of MSTR common stock through its at-the-market program between July 20 and July 26, generating $544.5 million in net proceeds, the company said in an announcement. Its Bitcoin holdings stayed at 843,775 BTC, untouched since a purchase of 520 BTC for $35 million disclosed on June 22.

Strategy said the reserve covers 2.1 years of dividend payments, against the $1.76 billion it owes each year in preferred dividends and debt interest.

The filing also disclosed Strategy’s first buyback of its own preferred stock, 288,930 Stretch (STRC) shares for $25 million. The purchase drew on the $1 billion Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program the board approved on June 29, leaving $975 million available, alongside an untouched $1 billion authorization for common stock.

STRC has traded below its $100 “par value” since mid-May, notching record lows earlier this month. Per Yahoo! Finance, STRC is changing hands for $88.61 in pre-market trading, up 1.99%.

The shift dates to the capital management framework adopted by the firm weeks ago, which authorized selling up to $1.25 billion of Bitcoin to top up reserves, cover dividends and fund repurchases. Strategy has since raised cash by selling MSTR stock rather than coins, padding the reserve to $3 billion and then $3.225 billion while diluting common shareholders. It has $22.98 billion of MSTR capacity left.

On prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt‘s parent company Dastan, users place just a 12% chance on Strategy holding over 1,000,000 BTC by year’s end, down from 14% a month ago.

A new yardstick

The Bitcoin buying pause is Strategy’s longest in two years. Last week the firm overhauled its investor metrics, debuting “net Bitcoin per share,” which strips out $22.2 billion of debt and preferred claims to show what common holders own.

Strategy also redefined mNAV against that figure, fixing the accretion threshold at 1.0x. On the old gross measure the stock had looked to trade at a discount; on the new one the same share price reads 1.02x, right at the line below which issuing stock to buy coins shrinks Bitcoin per share.

Bitcoin traded at around $65,000 on Monday, per CoinGecko data, putting Strategy’s stack $8.5 billion below the $63.69 billion it paid. The company reports second-quarter earnings on Thursday.