Strategy Scoops Up $21.5M in Bitcoin, Buys Back $192M in STRC

Strategy bought 250 BTC last week and spent $192.4 million repurchasing its STRC preferred stock, the company said on Monday.

The Bitcoin treasury firm paid $21.5 million for the coins between October 5 and October 11, an average of $86,194 per Bitcoin including fees, according to its release. It now holds 848,250 BTC, a new record, acquired for a total of $64 billion at an average of $75,444 per coin.

Strategy raised $21 million by selling about 125,000 shares of its MSTR common stock through its at-the-market offering program, and used $500,000 of cash to cover the rest. It sold none of its preferred stock during the week.

The company repurchased 1,932,145 shares of STRC, its variable-rate Stretch preferred stock, leaving $354.8 million available under its program to buy back preferred shares.

Last week, Strategy bought $29 million in Bitcoin and repurchased $176 million of STRC as it posted a $21 billion third-quarter gain.

Strategy's dollar reserves

As of October 11, Strategy held $4.88 billion in a U.S. dollar reserve set aside for preferred dividends and debt interest, and $640.5 million in cash for broader purposes such as buying Bitcoin.

Strategy set up its USD reserve with $1.44 billion, and later established the separate USD cash pot after raising $2 billion by selling MSTR stock.

The company has also proposed that its preferred stock dividends accrue 365 days a year, and has said it could sell up to $1.25 billion of Bitcoin under its digital credit capital framework.

Strategy CEO Phong Le defended selling Bitcoin as the "right trade" in September, weeks before the firm set a new holdings record at the end of the month with a $143 million purchase. Despite the uptick in buying, traders on prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt's parent company Dastan, do not expect the firm's holdings to surpass one million BTC by the end of the year, putting just a 5% chance on that outcome.