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.