Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy (MSTR) Sells $263.5 Million in MSTR Shares, Skips Bitcoin Purchase as USD Reserve Tops $3.2 Billion

Strategy sold about $263.5 million worth of MSTR shares last week and made no bitcoin purchases, according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The bitcoin treasury company reported the sale of 2,732,318 MSTR shares between July 13 and July 19. Proceeds went toward a $225 million boost to the firm’s U.S. dollar reserve, which reached $3.225 billion as of July 19. Strategy bought no bitcoin, sold no bitcoin, and repurchased no shares under its buyback programs across the period.

The company’s bitcoin stack holds at 843,775 BTC, a position worth around $54.7 billion at current prices. Strategy acquired the coins for about $63.7 billion, including fees and expenses, at an average price of $75,476 per bitcoin, according to co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor.

That total represents around 4% of bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap. At present prices, the position carries about $9 billion in paper losses.

The dollar reserve has climbed across a run of similar weeks. A prior filing put the balance near $3 billion after a $467 million share sale, and the fresh $225 million addition marks a continued tilt toward cash as management builds a buffer against the firm’s debt load.

Strategy’s bitcoin buying pause

The pause extends a pattern. Strategy has leaned on dollar accumulation over fresh bitcoin buys across recent weeks, a shift from the aggressive purchases that have reshaped corporate finance and defined much of its history.

Saylor posted another Strategy bitcoin acquisition tracker chart to X on Sunday with the caption “What’s next?” Posts of that kind have preceded acquisition announcements the next day, though the firm’s approach has varied across recent weeks.

Company leadership frames the sales as a matter of balance-sheet strength rather than retreat. President and CEO Phong Le told Bloomberg TV last week that Strategy intends to remain a long-term bitcoin buyer. Le said the firm would begin weighing risks tied to its debt in the event bitcoin dropped to the $8,000 to $10,000 range, and described the balance sheet as secure. 

The stance matches Saylor’s repeated pledge that Strategy will keep buying bitcoin for years, a message he has held even through defenses of potential BTC sales.

Saylor turned his attention to Bitcoin’s protocol over the weekend. He published a 110-point essay, “110 Reasons BIP 110 Is a Bad Idea,” his most detailed case against the proposed soft fork that seeks to limit arbitrary data on the network.

The essay arrived ahead of BIP-110’s mandatory signaling window, which opens in early August. Miner support sits at 0.86% per the proposal’s public monitor. 

Bitcoin mining pool Foundry has asked miners to vote on the measure, and industry voices have flagged the fork as one on track to fail given weak signaling.

Analyst reaction to Strategy’s dollar buildup has been warm. JPMorgan analysts called the larger cash reserves and improving institutional demand in bitcoin futures “encouraging signs” for the bitcoin outlook, even as spot bitcoin ETF flows stay volatile. 

Strategy sits atop a crowded field. Bitcoin Treasuries data counts 197 public companies with some form of bitcoin acquisition model, a tally that pushed corporate bitcoin holdings to a record high. Tether-backed Twenty One, Metaplanet, MARA, and the Adam Back and Cantor Fitzgerald-backed Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company round out the top five, with 43,514 BTC, 43,000 BTC, 36,303 BTC, and 30,021 BTC.

The stock has struggled. MSTR fell 4% across last week and closed Friday at $94.85, a drop of 38.6% year-to-date. Bitcoin gained around 1% over the same stretch, a split that widens the gap between the firm’s treasury value and its market capitalization.

Strategy shares were up 2% in pre-market trading.

This post Strategy (MSTR) Sells $263.5 Million in MSTR Shares, Skips Bitcoin Purchase as USD Reserve Tops $3.2 Billion first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Source: BitcoinMagazine