Strategy sells Bitcoin below its cost basis for a second week, offloading 1,690 coins for around USD 108.6 million. The proceeds went into a buyback of preferred shares, while share issuance lifted the USD reserve to USD 4.65 billion.
Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, is a listed US software company with Bitcoin as its largest balance sheet position. The group funds its purchases through share and bond issuance. So it counts as the prototype of a Bitcoin treasury firm. Originally those proceeds flowed straight into new coins. Under Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, the company bought continuously from 2020 onward and held to a never-sell doctrine. At the end of June 2026, however, the group announced the Digital Credit Capital Framework. It allows targeted sales to fund the company's own capital structure. The current sale is therefore the second in two consecutive weeks. It cuts holdings to 840,447 BTC worth roughly USD 54.7 billion. Strategy built that position at an average of USD 75,385 per Bitcoin.
Strategy sells Bitcoin to fund the STRC buyback
Strategy disclosed the transaction in an 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The sale ran between 3 and 9 August, and the filing followed a day later. The average price came to USD 64,262 per Bitcoin. Previously, the group had already sold in the week to 2 August. Back then it was 1,638 BTC for around USD 105 million. Both transactions also fall under the same framework.
The entire net proceeds from the Bitcoin sale went into a buyback of 1,152,020 STRC preferred shares. STRC is a Strategy preferred security that pays an ongoing 12 percent dividend. On one hand, such instruments bring in capital without diluting common shareholders. On the other, they demand fixed payouts regardless of how the coins trade. So each share bought back lowers the future dividend burden.
But Bitcoin was not the largest source of cash that week. At the same time, Strategy placed 6,585,682 MSTR shares for USD 653.1 million through an at-the-market program. Under such a program, a company issues new shares continuously on the exchange instead of placing one large offering. The share sale thus brought in roughly six times the Bitcoin proceeds. From those funds, the group topped up the USD reserve by USD 650 million to USD 4.65 billion. Under its own rules, the reserve covers preferred dividends and interest payments only. It does not serve as a capital buffer for new purchases. Around USD 22 billion in issuance capacity also remains unused.
Sale below cost breaks with the never-sell doctrine
The realized price of USD 64,262 sits around 14.8 percent below the average cost basis of USD 75,385. Per Bitcoin sold, that works out to a notional loss of about USD 11,123. Strategy therefore parted with coins below its own entry price to service obligations from its capital structure. Across the whole stack, though, the gap is wider. The remaining 840,447 BTC cost roughly USD 63.4 billion including fees. Today they are worth around USD 54.7 billion. That leaves a paper loss of about USD 8.7 billion. Yet this loss is not realized.
The Digital Credit Capital Framework from June paved the way. It raised the STRC dividend to 12 percent and created two buyback programs of USD 1 billion each. Furthermore, it authorized Bitcoin sales of up to USD 1.25 billion for the first time. In early August, the group then widened this BTC Monetization Program to as much as USD 5 billion. That figure covers roughly USD 1.25 billion for the USD reserve. In addition, annual dividend and interest obligations run to around USD 1.76 billion. Up to USD 2 billion goes to common and preferred share buybacks. The program has no expiry date. Nor does it commit the company to a fixed sales volume. Monetizing the stack is thus a permanent part of the toolkit.
Saylor publicly separates his personal stance from the balance sheet policy of the group. After the sale of 1,638 BTC the week before, he pushed back against the criticism on X.
"When I say 'Never sell your Bitcoin', I speak as one saver to another. I have never sold mine. Not one satoshi. Strategy is a publicly traded company, not my wallet." - Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman and co-founder of Strategy
For the balance sheet, the doctrine no longer applies. Within two weeks Strategy handed over 3,328 BTC and took in around USD 214 million. Both sales ultimately served the same purpose, the internal funding of dividends and buybacks.
STRC price moves back toward par
The buybacks show up in the price of the preferred security. At the end of June 2026 STRC traded below USD 75, and now the price stands above USD 95. Less than USD 5 separates it from the par value of USD 100. That par value doubles as the reference for calculating the payout. Strategy still wants to steer the price toward par.
At first, the reaction to the disclosure stayed muted. MSTR shares traded around 0.2 percent higher before the open. Bitcoin itself was unchanged. The MSTR share had gained 3.3 percent in the previous week and closed Friday at USD 100.01. Bitcoin likewise rose 2.4 percent over the same period.
Over the longer run, however, the gap remains wide. MSTR still trades around 78 percent below its own record high. The group reports its enterprise mNAV at 1.07. This multiple sets enterprise value against the value of the Bitcoin held. A value above 1 means a premium on the holdings. It is a company-defined metric, not a standardized accounting figure. At 1.07, the market barely pays a premium on the coins.
Strategy remains by far the largest Bitcoin holder
Even so, the sales change nothing about the ranking. The 840,447 BTC equal roughly 4 percent of the total supply, which caps out at 21 million coins. The closest follower is Tether-backed Twenty One Capital with 43,514 BTC. That amounts to just over 5 percent of the Strategy position. Behind it come Metaplanet with 43,000 BTC and MARA with 35,377 BTC. Fifth place goes to Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company with 30,021 BTC, backed by Adam Back and Cantor Fitzgerald. Together these four followers hold less than a fifth of the Strategy stack.
In total, 196 listed companies have adopted a Bitcoin acquisition model, according to Bitcoin Treasuries data. Their valuations are under pressure. Multiples of market capitalization to net asset value at digital asset treasury firms have shrunk markedly against the highs of summer 2025. Their model relies on capital raises through the equity market. Dividend and interest burdens, by contrast, accrue regardless of the share price.
As a result, the original funding mechanism is losing force. If a share trades only just above the value of its own coins, each new issue adds barely any Bitcoin per share. That makes capital raises unattractive. Consequently, selling existing holdings moves to the front as internal funding. Strategy keeps both routes open, with USD 22 billion of remaining capacity in the equity market and a sales program of USD 5 billion. The capital structure now draws increasingly on the stack it was originally meant to build.
