Strategy Shares Hit 4-Month Low as Bitcoin Dips Below $60K
In brief
- Strategy shares dropped to $114 Friday, lowest since early February
- Bitcoin fell below $60,000, touching $59,227 before recovering to $60,311
- Preferred stock STRC slid 3.6% to $93, moving away from $100 par value
- Strategy's Bitcoin holdings were $13.7 billion underwater on the day
Bitcoin and Stock Pressure
Bitcoin plunged as low as $59,227 on Friday—its lowest price since 2024—before rising back to $60,311, down roughly 5% in the last 24 hours. The move dragged Strategy's holdings underwater. The company's Bitcoin position was $13.7 billion underwater on Friday, echoing paper losses seen earlier this year.
Strategy's preferred stock, known as STRC, dropped 3.6% to $93, pulling further away from the $100 par value it's designed to trade at. The product currently offers an 11.5% annual dividend paid monthly.
Bitcoin Sale and Shifting Strategy
The pullback came days after Strategy disclosed its first Bitcoin sale since 2022, liquidating 32 Bitcoin for $2.5 million. The move contrasted sharply with the buy-and-never-sell mantra that co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor had long promoted. Analysts have described the liquidation as negligible given the scale of Strategy's holdings.
Strategy has spent $63.9 billion on Bitcoin since transforming itself years ago into a digital-asset treasury company. Since STRC's $2.5 billion IPO, the preferred stock has grown to a market cap of $9.55 billion.
Analyst View
A Benchmark-StoneX analyst said the pullback in STRC "isn't a real concern for Strategy," suggesting the move is well within expected range. The firm earmarked $2.25 billion to ensure it could continue making distributions on STRC, though it used 61% of those reserves when repurchasing debt last month.
Strategy has signaled that when STRC trades above its $100 par value, it will issue more of the preferred stock and buy more Bitcoin, setting a potential path forward for capital deployment.
