Strategy Lifts USD Reserve to $3.75B, Extends BTC Buying Pause to Five Weeks, Initiates $25M STRC Buyback

Strategy quietly shifted gears again: more balance-sheet fortification, less headline Bitcoin accumulation.

Between July 20 and July 26, the firm sold 5,429,160 MSTR shares via its at-the-market program, bringing in $544.5 million in net proceeds. Rather than add to its Bitcoin, it parked $525 million in cash, lifting its USD Reserve to $3.75 billion and skipping a BTC purchase for a fifth consecutive week. BTC holdings remain 843,775 BTC—unchanged since a 520 BTC buy for $35 million on June 22. As of 7/26/2026, the company says its reserve now covers 2.1 years of annual preferred dividends and interest, measured against $1.76 billion owed each year.

The more interesting tell is the first use of its $1 billion preferred buyback. Strategy repurchased 288,930 STRC shares for $25 million under the Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program approved June 29, leaving $975 million available—alongside an untouched $1 billion authorization for common stock. With STRC trading below its $100 par since mid-May and printing record lows earlier this month, retiring preferred below par reduces future cash outflows and moves value back to the residual. Per Yahoo Finance, STRC was changing hands at $88.61 in pre-market trading, up 1.99%.

The key pivot: reframing per-share economics. Strategy recently rolled out “net Bitcoin per share,” which strips out $22.2 billion of debt and preferred claims to isolate what common holders effectively own. It also reset mNAV and fixed the accretion threshold at 1.0x. On the old gross lens, issuing equity to buy more BTC had looked compelling; on the new net lens, the same share price reads 1.02x—right on the line where selling stock to chase coins risks shrinking net BTC per share. In that light, bolstering cash and buying discounted preferred looks rational: it preserves optionality, cushions obligations, and avoids reflexively issuing into a valuation that barely clears accretion.

A few implications stand out: - Issuance calculus shifts from “stack more” to “protect per-share BTC.” With equity trading near the 1.0x net threshold, the firm is signaling that dilution tolerance has tightened. - The reserve is strategic dry powder. The board already authorized selling up to $1.25 billion of Bitcoin to top up reserves, cover dividends, and fund repurchases, but management has prioritized raising fiat via MSTR instead of selling coins—first to $3.0 billion, then $3.225 billion, and now $3.75 billion—while accepting dilution to common. - Buying STRC below par is a capital-structure arb. It incrementally lowers the forward dividend burden and reduces sensitivity to market swings, which often matters more during policy or liquidity shocks.

There’s still significant issuance capacity if the window opens—$22.98 billion of MSTR remains available, by the company’s tally—but the new yardstick acts as a governor. If shares don’t trade at a premium to the net metric, the appetite to print stock just to add BTC likely fades.

Macro context isn’t doing the narrative any favors. Bitcoin hovered near $65,000 on Monday, leaving Strategy’s stack about $8.5 billion below the $63.69 billion aggregate cost basis. Prediction market pricing reflects tempered expectations: on Myriad, users assign only a 12% chance that holdings exceed 1,000,000 BTC by year-end, down from 14% a month ago.

The company reports second-quarter results on Thursday. Investors will be watching whether the preference for reserve-building and liability management persists—and how strictly the net Bitcoin per share threshold governs future issuance and buybacks.