Strategy Buys 250 BTC for $21.5 Million, Lifting Holdings to 848,250 BTC

Strategy bought 250 bitcoin for $21.5 million last week, taking the holdings of Michael Saylor's company to 848,250 BTC. The figures come from an announcement on Strategy's website, as reported by Cointelegraph and The Block on Monday.

It was a modest buy, less than 0.03% of the existing stack. Cointelegraph noted it was the second week in a row that Strategy's weekly purchase got smaller.

Funded almost entirely by common stock sales

Roughly $21 million of the total came from selling common stock. The other $500,000 came from cash on hand. The purchases ran from Monday through Sunday. Spread over 250 coins, that works out to an average of about $86,000 per bitcoin.

Saylor telegraphed the move a day earlier. In a Sunday post, Strategy's founder and executive chair wrote, "There's always room for more orange."

Strategy normally discloses bitcoin purchases in filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. This time the news landed on the company's own site first, with the SEC closed Monday for Columbus Day.

The Block put the 848,250 BTC at about 4% of bitcoin's 21 million supply cap, worth roughly $71 billion.

STRC buybacks run nine times the bitcoin spend

The bigger number was elsewhere. In the same week, Strategy spent $192.4 million buying back shares of its STRC preferred stock, up from $176.3 million the week before. That is close to nine times what went into bitcoin.

The company also holds a $4.88 billion US Reserve set aside for preferred dividends and debt interest. Separately, its USD Cash balance was $640.5 million as of Sunday.

Ahead of Monday's open, MSTR shares on Nasdaq were up less than 1%, per Yahoo Finance. The preferred stock was poised to open at $99.68.

Accumulation has slowed since Q3

Small buys have been the pattern for a few months. In the third quarter, Strategy acquired 7,218 BTC but also sold 5,553 BTC, leaving its holdings up just 0.2% over the period.

So while the weekly announcements keep coming, net growth in the stack has been slow relative to its size.

What it means for traders

With roughly 4% of bitcoin's maximum supply, Strategy's buying shapes how the market reads corporate demand. Things to watch:

• Weekly purchase size. It has shrunk two weeks running. If that continues, one of the most consistent corporate bid sources gets thinner.
• The post-holiday SEC filing. That is Strategy's usual disclosure route, so it is worth checking the official numbers against the website announcement.
• The STRC vs. BTC split. As long as preferred buybacks keep growing, the slice going to bitcoin may stay small.
• Common stock sales. Last week's buy was funded almost entirely by issuing MSTR shares, which adds to the share count, something MSTR holders tend to watch.

On price, The Block's $71 billion valuation implies about $83,700 per coin. At that level, last week's tranche, bought at around $86,000 on average, is under water. That $86,000 mark is a useful reference for when the latest buy moves back into profit.