Strategy repurchases $176 million of STRC shares, makes no bitcoin purchases or sales

Bitcoin treasury company Strategy (MSTR) did not buy or sell any bitcoin last week, leaving its total holdings unchanged at 845,050 BTC ($66.1 billion), according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

Strategy's holdings remain equivalent to more than 4% of bitcoin's 21 million supply cap, and imply around $2.4 billion of paper gains at current prices.

Instead, the company opted to repurchase 1.81 million STRC preferred shares for around $176.3 million and increased its digital credit securities repurchase program to $2 billion from $1 billion.

The firm said it funded the repurchases via its USD Cash reserve. As of Sept. 7, the balances of its USD Reserve and USD Cash were $5.1 billion and $1.44 billion, respectively.

Strategy defends selling low and buying high

Last week, Strategy CEO Phong Le said the company's sale of roughly 7,000 BTC at $60,000-$65,000 was "the right trade at the time" to fund preferred dividends.

Strategy subsequently paused bitcoin purchases for about 10 weeks while it shored up its balance sheet. Le said the company reduced net debt from roughly $7 billion to zero and built about $7 billion in total cash reserves.

The firm then acquired 4,603 BTC for approximately $369.7 million between Aug. 24 and Aug. 30 at an average price of $80,318 per bitcoin. "It’s the right trade at this point in time to sell MSTR at a premium to buy bitcoin," Le said.

Strategy hits back at MSCI proposal

Strategy also hit back against MSCI's latest proposal to exclude certain "non-operating asset" companies from the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes last week, calling it a disguised effort to remove digital asset treasury firms from the indices.

In a letter signed by Saylor and Le, the company said MSCI's consultation "is discriminatory, arbitrary, and misguided" and should be withdrawn. 

"If adopted, the proposal would have no meaningful impact on Strategy's business, but it would profoundly harm MSCI's reputation as a reliable and neutral index provider," Strategy wrote in the letter.

According to Bitcoin Treasuries data, 197 public companies have adopted some form of bitcoin acquisition model. Tether-backed Twenty One, Metaplanet, MARA, and Adam Back and Cantor Fitzgerald-backed Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company make up the rest of the top 5, with 43,514 BTC, 43,000 BTC, 35,577 BTC, and 30,021 BTC, respectively.

Strategy's stock gained 6.6% overall last week, closing on Friday at $142.80, according to The Block's MSTR price page, now down just 7.6% year-to-date after a substantial recovery, though still 56.7% negative over the past year. Bitcoin (BTC) rose 1.8% during the same period last week.