Strategy Bought 1,665 BTC. BTC/Share Fell 0.13% as MSTR Sales Funded STRC Buybacks.

More Bitcoin, less Bitcoin per share

Strategy bought 1,665 BTC for approximately $142.7 million, at an average price of $85,681 per bitcoin, including fees and expenses. Reported holdings reached 847,666 BTC.^[1]

That's a bigger purchase than last week's 950 BTC. The funding changed, though. Last week, Strategy used existing USD Cash and sold no ATM shares. This week, it sold 1,469,165 MSTR shares, raising $246.2 million net of sales commissions.^[1][2]

Here's how that worked out for the common shareholder:

ADSO includes the shares from assumed conversion of convertible securities and outstanding equity awards. We use it here to keep the comparison consistent with last week's analysis.^[3][4]

Last week, ADSO BTC/share rose about 0.11%. This week, it fell about 0.13%. The larger Bitcoin purchase wasn't enough to keep up with the additional shares.

Where the other 42% went

The filing splits the MSTR proceeds into two uses: $142.7 million for Bitcoin and $103.5 million for STRC repurchases. That's approximately 58% and 42%, respectively.^[1]

That allocation helps explain the BTC/share result. Strategy bought about 113,330 sats for each new MSTR share sold. Before this week's transactions, it held approximately 187,955 sats per assumed diluted share.

Using the change in reported ADSO, Strategy would have needed to add roughly 2,761 BTC to keep gross BTC/share level. It reported purchasing 1,665.

The money sent toward STRC still did something for common shareholders: it helped remove preferred stock ahead of them and the dividends attached to it. But STRC is nonconvertible. Repurchasing it doesn't shrink the common-share denominator.^[5]

So part of this week's common issuance effectively replaced dividend-paying preferred capital with common equity. The benefit is a smaller preferred dividend bill. Existing common holders share the Bitcoin treasury with more shares.

The STRC discount is getting smaller

Strategy repurchased 1,534,530 STRC shares for $151.7 million, compared with 1,771,238 shares for $174.0 million last week.^[1][2]

At STRC's $100 stated amount, this week's purchases removed approximately $153.5 million of preferred stated value. The implied average purchase price was $98.86, up from $98.24 last week.

That narrowed the discount from approximately 1.76% to 1.14%.

The difference between stated value removed and cash spent was about $1.75 million, versus $3.12 million last week. This is a useful check on what the buyback accomplished: Strategy paid $151.7 million to remove $153.5 million of preferred stated value.

The recurring benefit is larger. At STRC's current 12% annualized rate, this week's repurchases reduce the annualized regular dividend bill by approximately $18.4 million.^[5][6]

That reduction equals about 12.14% of the purchase cost per year at the current rate. STRC's rate is variable, so this is a snapshot of avoided dividend expense, not a guaranteed return.

As STRC gets closer to $100, there is less discount to capture. Avoiding future dividends becomes a bigger part of the economic case for continuing to buy it back.

Four reporting periods, $641 million of STRC buybacks

The latest purchase brings the total across the last four reporting periods to 6,537,120 STRC shares repurchased for $641.3 million.^[1][2][7][8]

Those shares represent $653.7 million of stated value and approximately $78.4 million of annualized dividends at a 12% rate.

Our running share ledger now puts STRC outstanding at approximately 91.63 million shares, down from 93.16 million last week. That implies $9.163 billion of stated value, matching Strategy's current dashboard at its displayed precision.^[4][5]

The remaining STRC dividend bill is still approximately $1.10 billion a year at 12%. The buybacks are making a measurable dent, but this remains a substantial recurring expense.

Strategy has $723.5 million of preferred repurchase authorization remaining. Its separate $1 billion MSTR repurchase authorization also remains available; the filing reports no common-stock buybacks this week.^[1]

More spending, much less cash drawn down

Strategy spent approximately $294.4 million on Bitcoin and STRC combined, up from $249.7 million last week. Yet the amount it drew from existing USD Cash fell from $249.7 million to $48.1 million.^[1][2]

That's about 18% more deployed, with roughly 81% less drawn from the existing cash pool.

The MSTR issuance made that possible. Common-stock sales supplied the money for the Bitcoin purchase and most of the STRC repurchases. Existing USD Cash covered the remaining $48.1 million of STRC purchases.

USD Cash ended the week at $1.00 billion, compared with $1.05 billion a week earlier. The separate USD Reserve ended at $5.02 billion, down from $5.04 billion, after Strategy used $22.1 million to pay preferred dividends.

Those pools serve different purposes. USD Cash is available for broader treasury and capital management uses. The USD Reserve is intended to support preferred dividends and debt interest.

The smaller cash drawdown is real, but it came with new common shares. That is the cost to keep in view when looking at the slower decline in cash.

What we're watching next

Last week's Bitcoin purchase increased BTC/share because the share count barely moved. This week's purchase came alongside a return to common issuance, with a substantial part of the proceeds directed toward STRC.

The next filing should tell us whether Strategy keeps using that combination, and how the split between Bitcoin and preferred buybacks changes.

For now, gross ADSO BTC/share is down about 0.13%, while the STRC repurchases remove roughly $18.4 million of annualized dividends at the current rate. Both matter to common holders. The BTC/share figure captures the immediate dilution; the reduced preferred balance and dividend expense explain what Strategy received in exchange.