Strategy sold 1,638 bitcoin for $104.73 million between July 27 and August 2. The average sale price was $63,957 per coin. The company’s average purchase price across its whole stack is $75,4
Strategy sold 1,638 bitcoin for $104.73 million between July 27 and August 2. The average sale price was $63,957 per coin.
The company’s average purchase price across its whole stack is $75,419. So every coin in that batch went out the door roughly $11,000 below what it cost.
That is the headline most outlets ran. The more useful number sits one line further down the filing.
The Reserve Is Now Complete
Strategy’s USD Reserve reached $4 billion after this transaction. That was the target. The reserve is a ring-fenced pile of cash set aside to pay preferred dividends and debt interest, and it is now fully built.
CryptoSlate put the coverage at roughly 27 months of those fixed obligations. Strategy’s own second quarter report on July 30 described the reserve at $3.75 billion, covering just over 2.1 years.
Those two framings agree. The reserve went from 2.1 years of coverage to something a little over two and a quarter years, and then stopped.
That matters because it reframes the sales. They were not panic. They were a funding exercise with a defined finish line, and the line has been crossed.
Where the Money Actually Went
The filing splits the proceeds precisely. Of the $104.73 million raised from bitcoin, $52.4 million funded preferred stock dividends. The other $52.3 million bought back STRC shares.
Separately, Strategy sold 3,011,361 MSTR shares for $290.6 million net. Of that, $250 million went into the USD Reserve, $28.9 million into more STRC buybacks, and $11.7 million into general cash.
So the total STRC repurchase for the week was $81.2 million, covering 912,143 shares. That single figure was funded from two different sources.
Several outlets reported the $28.9 million and the $81.2 million as separate purchases. They are not. The smaller number is a component of the larger one.
ItemFigureSource of fundsBTC sold (Jul 27 to Aug 2)1,638 coinsn/aNet BTC proceeds$104.73 millionBitcoin salesPreferred dividends paid$52.4 millionBitcoin salesSTRC repurchase (part one)$52.3 millionBitcoin salesSTRC repurchase (part two)$28.9 millionMSTR share salesSTRC repurchase total$81.2 million (912,143 shares)BothAdded to USD Reserve$250 millionMSTR share sales
The Year Total Is the Real Story
This was not a one-off. Strategy has now disposed of 5,258 bitcoin during 2026, according to CryptoSlate. That is the most it has sold in any single year since it started buying in 2020.
The sequence started small. Just 32 coins went out between May 26 and May 31, at an average of $77,135. The market read that as symbolic and sold off anyway.
Then came 3,588 coins between late June and early July. Optimisus covered that stretch in the week Strategy broke its own rule twice, when the company bought thousands of coins and sold thousands more within days.
The August batch is the second largest of the year by volume. And purchases have now been paused for six weeks, the longest gap since 2024.
What the Preferred Stock Has to Do With It
STRC is Strategy’s variable rate perpetual preferred stock. It carries an annual dividend rate of 12.00% for periods with record dates on or after July 1, 2026.
You will still see 11% and 11.5% quoted in coverage. Those were the earlier rates. The company raised it, and some outlets have not updated.
Strategy has said it does not intend to recommend cutting that rate until STRC trades consistently near its stated $100 value. Buying the shares back below par is how it is trying to close that gap.
Every dollar of that costs cash. The bitcoin is where a meaningful part of the cash is coming from.
The Part Shareholders Should Watch
Strategy still holds 842,138 bitcoin, bought for $63.51 billion in total. At roughly $65,000 per coin, that stack is worth about $55 billion.
So the position remains deeply underwater against cost. The company reported an $8.22 billion loss for the second quarter, largely a mark-to-market effect rather than realized cash burn.
MSTR shares are down around 40% year to date, a steeper fall than bitcoin’s own decline over the same stretch. The leveraged proxy has been leveraged in the wrong direction.
For anyone holding MSTR as a simple bitcoin substitute, that gap is the point. Capital allocation decisions at the company level can move against the underlying asset.
The Question the Filing Does Not Answer
The reserve is done. The stated purpose of the sales has been met. So the open question is whether the sales stop.
Strategy’s BTC Monetization Program authorized up to $1.25 billion in bitcoin sales for reserve funding, dividends and repurchases. Anything beyond those purposes or amounts needs fresh board approval.
That is a real constraint, and it is worth watching in the next weekly disclosure. If sales continue at pace with the reserve already full, the framing changes.
Broader market conditions are not making the decision easier. Bitcoin has held a range around $64,000 to $66,000, supported by ETF demand that Optimisus examined in the August ETF streak that is less than it sounds.
Institutional appetite has not vanished. Sovereign money has been active too, as seen when Abu Dhabi disclosed a $436.9 million position in iShares Bitcoin ETF.
But institutional buying of an ETF and a treasury company selling coins to pay dividends are different signals. They can happen at the same time and often do.
Michael Saylor has spent years arguing that holding bitcoin directly beats every alternative, a position that has drawn criticism before, including when he downplayed self-custody.
The filings now describe a company that treats its bitcoin as a funding source for its capital structure. That is a defensible strategy. It is also a different one from what the stock was originally sold on.
Sources
This is not financial advice.
Optimisus covers crypto and technology news for readers who want the detail behind the headline.
