Strategy’s Latest Bitcoin Sale Landed Below Its Own Cost Basis
- Strategy sold 1,690 BTC between August 3 and August 9 for $108.6 million, averaging $64,262 per coin.
- That average sits below the firm’s own $75,385 blended cost basis, a rare loss-booking trade for the company.
- The firm separately raised $653.1 million from MSTR share sales, lifting its dollar reserve to $4.65 billion.
Strategy disclosed a Bitcoin sale this week that landed below the company’s own cost basis, a departure from its usual buy-and-hold pattern and one of the clearer signs yet that the firm’s cash management strategy has shifted through 2026.
According to a filing with the SEC, Strategy sold 1,690 BTC between August 3 and August 9 for $108.6 million, an average of $64,262 per coin. That average sits below the firm’s blended purchase price of $75,385, meaning the trade booked a loss relative to Strategy’s own historical cost for those coins. Bitcoin trades near $63,732 today, according to Coinscipher’s live pricing, still below that cost basis.
Where the Proceeds Went
Every dollar from the sale went toward a specific purpose: buying back 1,152,020 shares of STRC, one of Strategy’s preferred stock products. STRC had recently traded near $95, below its $100 face value, meaning Strategy repurchased that paper at a discount to par, a move that trims the company’s future dividend obligations on those shares.
The larger capital move this week came from equity rather than Bitcoin. Strategy sold 6,585,682 MSTR shares for $653.1 million, with $650 million of that going directly into the company’s dollar reserve and the remaining $3.1 million joining general cash. That pushed the reserve to $4.65 billion as of August 9…up from $2.25 billion at the start of 2026.
What the Combination Signals
Strategy launched a formal Bitcoin monetization program in July, a stated framework under which the company trims coin holdings to help fund preferred stock dividends and interest obligations while favoring share issuance over Bitcoin sales whenever market conditions allow. Sales tied to that program had already reached $218.4 million by late July; this week’s trade pushes the cumulative total above $327 million.
The company’s Bitcoin holdings, now 840,447 BTC with a total cost basis of $63.36 billion, sit at roughly $53.7 billion in current value, an unrealized paper loss approaching $9.7 billion. Strategy’s second-quarter results reflected that pressure directly, with an $8.22 billion net loss driven primarily by an $8.32 billion digital-asset write-down.
The company still holds $1 billion in remaining capacity for MSTR buybacks and $785.2 million for preferred stock repurchases, giving it room to continue this pattern if conditions warrant. Strategy has characterized these moves as balance sheet discipline rather than a change in its long-term view of Bitcoin, though the shift toward funding obligations through equity issuance and selective coin sales marks a clear departure from the accumulation-only approach the company built its reputation on.
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