Strategy is selling bitcoin again: the STRC buyback and the new reality of digital treasury
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) has once again resorted to selling part of its bitcoin reserve. This week, the corporation sold 1,690 BTC for $108.6 million, directing all proceeds to buy back its own preferred shares, STRC. This is the second such deal in the last two weeks, signaling a radical shift in capital management.
The company still holds 840,447 BTC on its balance sheet—still the largest corporate stockpile of the leading cryptocurrency in the world. However, it is important to understand: Strategy is currently selling coins at a price significantly below its average cost basis to support STRC quotes, which are clearly falling short of market expectations.
Details of the latest sale: figures and context
The transactions took place between August 3 and August 9. The average sale price was $64,262 per coin. The information was disclosed in an 8-K filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The proceeds were used to buy back 1,152,020 STRC shares. Recall that STRC is a perpetual preferred stock with a floating rate, issued to finance bitcoin investments. Its dividend is reviewed monthly and currently stands at 12% per annum, which should keep the price near the $100 par value.
However, the market has not embraced this structure. On Friday, STRC closed at $95.01 (+1.16% for the day), but over the past year the security has fallen as low as $71.25. In premarket trading on Monday, the share rose to $95.55, but it is still too early to talk about a recovery.
Strategy: not abandoning bitcoin, but managing debt
This deal continues a steady trend: a week earlier, Strategy had already sold 1,638 BTC. Thus, the company has been a net seller for two consecutive weeks, and this time the bitcoin purchase report does not mention any replenishment of the reserve at all.
The current stockpile is valued at $63.36 billion, with an average acquisition price of $75,385 per coin. Any sale at current levels locks in a loss relative to that mark. Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, however, has repeatedly emphasized that he personally has never sold bitcoin.
MSTR sales and dollar reserve
In parallel, Strategy sold 6,585,682 MSTR shares through its at-the-market (ATM) program, raising $653.1 million. Of that, $650 million was directed into the dollar reserve, which now stands at $4.65 billion. Saylor characterized this week as a "credit operation" rather than a retreat from bitcoin.
"Strategy increased the dollar reserve by $650 million and bought back $109 million of STRC. This increased the duration of the USD reserve by 143 days—to 2.7 years—and reduced the bitcoin-linked STRC credit by 10 bps," Saylor wrote on social media platform X.
Nearly all of the remaining quota for purchasing preferred shares was used up in the buyback—only $785.2 million is now available. For comparison, the limit on issuing new MSTR shares remains virtually untouched: about $22 billion is still available.
Why Strategy is selling bitcoin
The current actions are directly tied to the Digital Credit Capital Framework plan approved in late June. It permits limited bitcoin sales to finance preferred share dividends, buybacks, and cash reserve replenishment when issuing new shares looks less favorable.
Since the plan's launch, Strategy has paused bitcoin purchases and has been building up cash reserves almost every week. The company claims this reserve will be sufficient to cover dividend payments across its entire preferred share line for several years ahead.
The recovery measures have partially worked: STRC has rebounded roughly 33% from its lows. However, even the 12% dividend and $109 million in buybacks have not yet brought the price back to par.
On Monday, bitcoin was trading around $65,019, up 1.5% over the day. At the same time, the market is still about 13% below Strategy's average purchase price.
New reports will clarify whether the current pace of sales will continue or whether the company will return to accumulation. In any case, shareholders face a difficult choice: their bitcoin proxy now operates as a treasury with active management in the interests of its own capital structure, rather than as a simple vehicle for betting on the growth of the leading cryptocurrency.
My view: Strategy is transforming from a "bitcoin trust" into a complex financial conglomerate, where the interests of holders of different share classes are beginning to diverge. Selling BTC below cost is not panic, but a forced measure to maintain covenants. However, if the bitcoin price continues to stay below the average purchase price, the company risks falling into a vicious cycle, where each new sale only exacerbates pressure on the quotes.