Strategy is selling bitcoin again: STRC buyback and a new era of capital management
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) has once again resorted to selling bitcoins, offloading 1,690 BTC for $108.6 million. All proceeds were directed toward repurchasing preferred STRC shares, part of a new capital management strategy.
The company's balance sheet still holds 840,447 BTC — this remains the largest corporate reserve of the leading cryptocurrency. However, it is important to note: the sales are occurring at a price below the average cost basis, recording a loss relative to the initial investments. This is a deliberate step aimed at stabilizing STRC quotes, which have failed to hold near their par value.
Details of the latest transaction
The sales were carried out between August 3 and 9, with an average sale price of $64,262 per coin. The transaction was disclosed in a Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). With the funds raised, the company repurchased 1,152,020 preferred STRC shares.
As a reminder, STRC is a perpetual preferred security with a floating rate, issued to finance bitcoin investments. Its dividend is reviewed monthly and currently stands at 12% annually, designed to keep the price near the $100 par value. However, the market has not embraced this mechanism: on Friday, STRC closed at $95.01, and over the past year the price has fallen to $71.25. In Monday's premarket trading, the security edged up to $95.55.
The trend is clear: a week earlier, Strategy had already sold 1,638 BTC, and now for two consecutive weeks the company has been a net seller. No new purchases were recorded in the bitcoin acquisition report.
Dollar reserve and MSTR sales
In parallel, Strategy sold 6,585,682 MSTR shares through its at-the-market (ATM) program, raising $653.1 million. Of that amount, $650 million was directed into the dollar reserve, which now stands at $4.65 billion. CEO Michael Saylor emphasizes that this is a credit operation, not a departure from bitcoin.
"Strategy increased its dollar reserve by $650 million and repurchased $109 million of STRC. This extended the duration of the USD reserve by 143 days — to 2.7 years — and reduced the bitcoin-backed STRC credit by 10 basis points. As of August 9, 2026, we hold 840,447 BTC on the balance sheet and a $4.65 billion dollar reserve," Saylor stated.
Nearly the entire remaining quota was used for the preferred share repurchase — only $785.2 million is now available. For comparison, the limit on issuing new MSTR shares remains largely untouched: about $22 billion is still available. On Friday, MSTR closed at $100.01 (+3.26%), but in Monday's premarket trading the stock slipped slightly by 0.21%.
Reasons and outlook
The current actions are tied to the Digital Credit Capital Framework plan approved in late June. It permits limited bitcoin sales to fund dividends on preferred shares, buybacks, and replenishment of cash reserves when issuing new shares appears less advantageous. Since the plan's launch, Strategy has paused BTC purchases and has been steadily building cash reserves weekly, claiming this will suffice for payouts across its entire preferred securities lineup for years to come.
The measures have partially worked: STRC has recovered about 33% from its lows. However, even the 12% dividend and $109 million in buybacks have not yet returned the price to par. On Monday, bitcoin is trading around $65,019 (+1.5% over the day), but the market is still roughly 13% below Strategy's average purchase price.
My take: we are witnessing a fundamental shift in Strategy's business model — from simple bitcoin accumulation to active capital structure management. This creates a complex dilemma for shareholders: their bitcoin proxy now operates as a treasury manipulating its own instruments. The question is whether the market can adapt to this new paradigm, or whether investors will begin demanding a more transparent strategy.