Strategy announced on Monday that it purchased 4,871 Bitcoin for $330 million the previous week, resuming acquisitions after a brief pause. The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based company now holds nearly 767,000 Bitcoin, a sum worth approximately $53.3 billion. The latest tranche was acquired at an average price of $67,700 per coin, below the level at which Bitcoin traded on Monday.
The purchase was funded primarily through Strategy’s variable-rate preferred share, STRC, a dividend-paying financial product. The firm issued $227 million worth of STRC compared to $72 million in common shares to finance the acquisition. Over the course of last month alone, Strategy raised more than $1.5 billion through the same instrument.
The company had not disclosed any Bitcoin purchase the week before, ending a 13-week run of consecutive acquisitions during which it accumulated 90,831 BTC. Co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor signaled the firm’s return to buying activity in a Sunday post on social media, writing simply, “Back to Work.” The resumption came after the extended streak had been substantially supported by proceeds from STRC.
Strategy has indicated it will issue additional STRC shares whenever the product trades above its par value of $100, in order to keep the price aligned with that threshold. Last week, the preferred share met or exceeded that level for four consecutive trading days, prompting further issuance activity.
In a separate financial update released Monday, Strategy disclosed that the value of its Bitcoin holdings declined by $14.46 billion during the first quarter of this year. That figure does not account for the company’s operating costs, yet it still surpassed the $12.4 billion loss recorded in the fourth quarter of last year. As of Monday, the company’s Bitcoin position was approximately $4.9 billion below its total acquisition cost, with an average purchase price of $75,600 per coin since it began buying in 2020.
Strategy shares were set to open roughly 2.4% lower at around $199 ahead of Monday’s trading session, according to Yahoo Finance. The stock has declined 21% so far this year and has fallen 65% over the past six months from a level of $359. The drop reflects broader pressure on the company’s equity despite its continued accumulation of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin itself rose 4.1% over the preceding 24 hours to reach $69,480, according to data from CoinGecko, pushing the asset into positive territory for the week. Nevertheless, Bitcoin remained 44% below its all-time high of $126,000 reached the previous year. On Myriad, a prediction market operated by Dastan, traders placed a 13% probability on Strategy selling Bitcoin at some point this year, down from 17% a month earlier.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
