Strategy paid $97.40 for a $100 share and $80,318 for one bitcoin

Strategy made two purchases in the same stretch of weeks. It bought back 1.81 million of its own STRC preferred shares for $176.3 million, and it bought 4,603 bitcoin for $369.7 million. The Block reported the buyback on Monday. The first came in under par. The second came in above the market.

The side that bought at a discount

Divide $176.3 million by 1.81 million shares and you get $97.40. STRC carries a stated amount of $100 and pays a variable dividend that Strategy set at 12% a year for September, or $12 a share. So the company retired those shares 2.6% below par and cut $21.7 million from its annual dividend bill.

Against the money spent that works out at 12.32% a year. The percentage lives in the terms of the security rather than in the market, so the price of bitcoin does not touch it.

Strategy doubled the programme behind the STRC buyback from $1 billion to $2 billion. It has used $176.3 million of that, or 8.8%. The company held $1.44 billion in USD Cash on 7 September, which puts the authorisation at 1.4 times the cash available to fund it.

The side that bought at a premium

Between 24 and 30 August the company paid an average of $80,318 a bitcoin. Bitcoin trades at $78,302, so that batch sits 2.5% down and $9.3 million lighter. We wrote up the purchase itself on 31 August.

The full position looks steadier. Strategy owns 845,050 bitcoin, 4.02% of the 21 million cap, worth $66.1 billion against $2.4 billion of unrealised gains. Back out the gain and the average cost across every coin comes to $75,380. After years of buying, the whole stack sits 3.9% in the money.

“It's the right trade at this point in time to sell MSTR at a premium to buy bitcoin.”

— Phong Le, chief executive of Strategy, The Block, 8 September 2026

Phong Le, chief executive of Strategy. Source: The Block, 8 September 2026

The cost of the round trip

Strategy sold roughly 7,000 bitcoin at $60,000 to $65,000 to fund preferred dividends, a sale we covered on 10 August. Le called that the right trade at the time. The company then bought 4,603 coins back at $80,318.

Take the midpoint of the sale range. Those 4,603 coins raised about $287.7 million on the way out and cost $369.7 million on the way back in, so the round trip ran $82 million against Strategy. The full 7,000 it sold would fetch $110.6 million more today than it received.

Whenever STRC trades under $100, Strategy can retire a 12% liability at a discount and book a return that holds regardless of where bitcoin goes. It has spent 8.8% of the room it gave itself to do that. The coins bought in the same fortnight need a 2.5% move before they earn anything, and the company will keep buying those too.

None of this should be read as personalized investment advice.