Strategy Spends Six Times More Buying Back Its Own Stock Than Buying Bitcoin

Strategy added just 334 bitcoin last week and spent more than six times as much repurchasing its own preferred shares, according to a company filing detailed by Decrypt, which also put the firm's third-quarter gain on digital assets at $20.91 billion.

The bitcoin — bought between October 1 and 4 for an aggregate $28.7 million, an average of $85,838.80 a coin — lifts holdings to a record 848,000 BTC, a week after the firm passed its June high. Strategy bought nothing in the last three days of September.

Against that, it repurchased $176.3 million of its Stretch (STRC) preferred stock: 1,033,168 shares for $102.6 million in late September and 740,634 more for $73.7 million in the first four days of October. Of the total, $154.1 million came from USD Cash and $22.2 million from interest on cash and short-term holdings. The buyback program has $547.2 million left.

Strategy also sold 92,894 MSTR shares for $15.7 million in net proceeds, all directed into bitcoin alongside $13 million from USD Cash. None of its four preferred lines were sold through its at-the-market program.

Key facts

• 334 BTC acquired Oct 1–4 for $28.7M, avg $85,838.80/coin; holdings now 848,000 BTC (Strategy filing, via Decrypt).
• $176.3M of STRC repurchased across late Sept and early Oct; $547.2M remains in the program (filing, via Decrypt).
• Q3 gain on digital assets estimated at $20.91B, with $1.88B of associated deferred tax (filing, via Decrypt).
• Dollar balances: $4.88B USD Reserve, $833.4M USD Cash; $142.5M drawn from the reserve for dividends and interest in the week to Oct 4 (filing, via Decrypt).
• Average cost across the full position: $75,440.70 (filing, via Decrypt).

The real-world read

Strategy's own post led with the headline it wanted read — "$21 billion gain in Q3 2026" — but that figure is a fair-value mark, not realized cash. It reflects price appreciation on bitcoin the company still holds, and it carries $1.88 billion in deferred tax. Treat the rounded "$21 billion" as interested-party framing.

The spending tells the quieter story. Strategy bought bitcoin at roughly 14% above its own $75,440.70 average cost, in small size, while steering six times more money into STRC — a preferred that has traded below its $100 par value for months. Per Decrypt, that is a pattern across the sector: Metaplanet sold 10,000 BTC and bought back 11,000 in its own quarter, a round trip staged to show credit rating agencies it could convert bitcoin to cash on demand. These firms are now spending as much on the credit side of the balance sheet as on accumulation — a detail the "record holdings" headline leaves out.

Opinion, and whose

Decrypt's read is that both Strategy and Metaplanet are increasingly managing their balance sheets for credit agencies rather than pure accumulation. Strategy itself frames the quarter around the $21 billion gain. No forecast of bitcoin's price is offered by either party.

Sources

• Decrypt (secondary) — reporting on Strategy's filing and the breakdown of purchases, buybacks and balances; cited Strategy's own filing and a company tweet as primary sources.
• Strategy (primary, via Decrypt) — its filing and October 5 tweet; this is the company's own disclosure and reads promotionally, led with the unrealized gain.

This is news reporting, not financial advice.