Strategy Pauses Bitcoin Buys, Spends $205 Million on STRC Buyback

Strategy (MSTR) bought and sold no bitcoin during the week of October 19 through 25, according to a company release, while spending $204.9 million repurchasing its STRC preferred stock. The company holds 848,517 BTC, acquired for $64.02 billion at an average price of $75,446 per coin, and closed the week with a $4.83 billion cash reserve.

The pause extends a pattern that has defined Strategy's treasury operations this year. Michael Saylor's company built the largest corporate bitcoin position in the world through common stock sales and convertible debt, recycling the proceeds into coins. In 2025 that engine has repeatedly stopped. The company has paused purchases several times, once for a single week and once for a five-week stretch that ended with an outright bitcoin sale — its first in years.

Cash that once flowed into coins now moves into preferred share retirements. In September, Strategy repurchased $176 million of STRC in one week and expanded its digital credit securities repurchase program from $1 billion to $2 billion. This week's $204.9 million buyback is the largest disclosed repurchase since that expansion.

What does the STRC buyback change for shareholders?

STRC is a variable-dividend preferred stock engineered to trade near its $100 face value. When the shares slip below par — as they have during recent market swings — buying them back retires a larger claim than the cash spent. Retiring $100 of stated value for $86.52, the company's own framing, shrinks the preferred claim by more than the cash outlay, which raises net bitcoin per common share.

The arithmetic matters for two reasons. First, it converts a static treasury into an accretion mechanism that functions without new coin purchases. Second, it changes the funding mix: buyback capacity now depends on STRC trading below par and on cash generated from common stock sales, a mix that has shifted toward equity issuance this year.

The position still shows a paper gain

Bitcoin traded near $80,000 on Monday, October 26, after a weekend selloff pushed the price into the low $79,000s, a level not seen in over a month. Even at that level, Strategy's $75,446 average cost basis leaves a paper gain of roughly $3.9 billion on the 848,517 BTC stack — about $4,600 per coin held.

The $4.83 billion cash reserve is earmarked for preferred dividends and debt interest, per company reporting, which sets a floor under how much of it can fund buybacks or purchases before new capital arrives.

Strategy has offered no timetable for resuming bitcoin buys. Until STRC returns to par or common stock issuance picks up, the repurchase program — now sized at $2 billion — remains the company's most active use of cash.