Strategy deepens bitcoin wager

Strategy has stepped up its bitcoin buying spree with a $2.54 billion acquisition of 34,164 tokens, marking one of the largest purchases in the company’s history and pushing its total holdings to 815,061 bitcoin. The purchase, made between April 13 and April 19, was funded through sales of perpetual preferred stock known as STRC and the company’s common stock, extending a capital-raising model that has turned the former software group into the world’s most aggressive listed corporate buyer of bitcoin.

The company paid an average of $74,395 per bitcoin in the latest transaction, including fees and expenses. Its total bitcoin stockpile has now been accumulated at an aggregate cost of about $61.56 billion, or an average of $75,527 per token. The scale of the move puts the latest buy behind only two larger purchases by coin count, both completed in November 2024, and makes it the biggest weekly accumulation since that period.

What sets this round apart is not only the size of the purchase but the funding structure behind it. Strategy sold 21,795,389 STRC shares, raising roughly $2.18 billion in net proceeds, and also sold 2,165,000 common shares for a further $366 million. No sales were reported in its other preferred stock lines during the period. That left substantial remaining issuance capacity across several programmes, including more than $26.7 billion tied to its common stock facility, giving the company room to keep raising capital if market conditions remain supportive.

The latest purchase also underlines how central STRC has become to Strategy’s financing machine. The preferred instrument has been marketed to investors seeking high income, and the company is now seeking to make it more attractive by proposing semi-monthly dividend payments instead of monthly distributions, while maintaining the same annual yield. That yield has climbed to about 11.5%, reflecting the higher cost of using preferred equity to keep buying bitcoin at scale. A shareholder vote on the payment change is due to begin on April 28 and run through the annual meeting on June 8.

For supporters, the logic remains straightforward. Strategy has built its identity around bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset and as a levered corporate proxy for investors who want exposure to the cryptocurrency through a listed stock. The company says it has achieved a bitcoin yield of 9.5% so far in 2026, a metric it uses to track growth in bitcoin holdings relative to its capital base. With the latest transaction, Strategy’s bitcoin stash is valued at roughly $62 billion at prevailing market prices, reinforcing its role as a dominant corporate player in digital assets.

Yet the strategy also carries visible strains. The rising yield required to sell STRC points to a higher financing burden, and annual interest costs tied to the broader capital structure have climbed sharply. One estimate puts those annual financing costs at about $1.489 billion, with the company holding a reserve fund of around $2.25 billion, enough for just over 18 months of coverage under that model. That suggests Strategy’s ability to sustain the pace of bitcoin buying will depend not just on bitcoin’s price direction, but on whether investors keep accepting fresh securities issuance without demanding even steeper terms.

There is also the dilution question. Strategy’s model works best when its shares trade at a premium to the value of the bitcoin it holds, allowing it to issue stock and preferred securities on favourable terms. Analysts tracking the company argue that if that premium narrows too much, or turns into a discount, each new capital raise could become less efficient and potentially reduce bitcoin exposure on a per-share basis rather than enhance it. At present, investors still appear willing to back the trade, with the company retaining a sizeable premium over the marked value of its crypto holdings.

The broader market backdrop helps explain why this purchase has drawn such attention. Corporate and institutional participation in bitcoin has widened through listed products, spot exchange-traded funds and balance-sheet allocations, but few players have embraced the asset with Strategy’s intensity. Crossing the 815,000 mark further cements its standing as the largest public company holder of bitcoin and keeps Executive Chairman Michael Saylor at the centre of a debate over whether balance-sheet engineering can turn a volatile digital asset into a durable corporate strategy.