Strategy Raises $467 Million to Lift Its Cash Reserve to $3 Billion, Skipping Bitcoin for a Third Week - Unchained

Strategy says it raised $466.7 million last week by selling common stock and funneled all of it into cash, lifting its US dollar reserve to $3 billion and passing on a Bitcoin purchase for the third consecutive week.

The company sold about 4.8 million MSTR shares between July 6 and July 12 and bought no Bitcoin, leaving its holdings at 843,775 Bitcoin acquired for $63.69 billion, an average of $75,476 a coin, according to a Monday filing.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

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The cash reserve exists to cover dividends on Strategy’s preferred stock and interest on its debt. The move added about 18% to the cash cushion, enough for more than 20 months of the firm’s $1.76 billion in annual dividend and interest obligations.

The week captures how sharply Strategy has swung from offense to defense. For years the model was simple: raise capital, buy Bitcoin, repeat. But with the company’s capital structure now more complicated, it weeks ago adopted a capital framework that authorizes selling Bitcoin at scale. The firm followed that by disclosing its largest-ever Bitcoin sale, about $216 million, in late June.

MSTR at around $92 on Monday’s close is down about 48% over the past month, though it has steadied since hitting an over-two-year low of $81.81 in late June. Stretch (STRC), the preferred share that has funded much of Strategy’s Bitcoin buying in recent months and now yields 12%, has traded below its $100 par value since mid-May. With Bitcoin down near $62,600, Strategy’s stockpile sits roughly $11 billion below what it paid.

Related Listen: Strategy Sold More Bitcoin. Is This a Betrayal of the Bitcoin Ethos?