Strategy pauses Bitcoin buying, spends $204.9M on STRC preferred stock buyback
In brief
- Strategy bought no Bitcoin last week, breaking a weekly buying run that began in mid-September.
- Strategy spent $204.9 million buying back 2,068,459 STRC preferred shares, the company said Monday.
- USD Cash fell to $242.4 million from $447.3 million; the USD Reserve held at $4.83 billion.
- MSCI is scheduled to publish its list of affected non-operating companies on November 11.
A buyback instead of a Bitcoin buy
The STRC repurchase covered 2,068,459 shares. It was the largest weekly STRC buyback of the recent weeks, up from $193.1 million the week before and $192.4 million the week before that.
The Bitcoin side looks very different. Strategy bought 267 BTC for $22.1 million the previous week, after spending $21.5 million on 250 BTC the week before that (it also put $29 million into Bitcoin in the week it reported a $21 billion third-quarter gain). Its 848,517 BTC were bought at an average of $75,446 per coin.
"Strategy has repurchased $205M of $STRC . As of 10/25/26, we hold 848,517 $BTC and $5.1B of USD Assets."
That line comes from a social media post embedded in Decrypt's report and written in Strategy's voice. The report doesn't name who posted it.
Where the cash came from
Strategy paid for the buyback entirely out of USD Cash, the pool it keeps for general purposes (including buying Bitcoin). That pool fell to $242.4 million from $447.3 million a week earlier, according to the company's disclosures as reported by Decrypt.
The separate USD Reserve didn't move. It's meant to cover preferred dividends and interest on the company's debt, and it held steady at $4.83 billion.
After the latest buyback, $956.8 million remains available under Strategy's $3 billion preferred-stock repurchase program, which it raised from $2 billion a week earlier. A separate program to buy back MSTR common stock has $1 billion left.
The MSCI backdrop
The pause came as Strategy faces possible removal from MSCI's widely tracked equity indexes. MSCI finalized a rule on October 15 that treats "non-operating companies" (those whose balance sheets are dominated by a single asset) as ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes from the close of November 30. The index provider is scheduled to publish the list of affected companies on November 11, according to Decrypt.
That list matters, since removal would force funds that track the indexes to sell the affected shares.
Strategy chairman Michael Saylor had urged MSCI to drop what he called a "discriminatory" rule.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between Strategy's USD Cash and USD Reserve?
USD Cash is the pool Strategy keeps for general purposes, including buying Bitcoin. It paid for the latest STRC buyback entirely from that pool, which fell to $242.4 million from $447.3 million. The separate USD Reserve is meant to cover preferred dividends and debt interest, and it held steady at $4.83 billion.
What is the MSCI rule affecting Strategy?
MSCI finalized a rule on October 15 that makes 'non-operating companies' (those whose balance sheets are dominated by a single asset) ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes from the close of November 30. MSCI is scheduled to publish the list of affected companies on November 11. Removal would force index-tracking funds to sell the affected shares.
