Strategy sold 1,638 bitcoin for roughly $104.7 million between July 27 and Aug. 2, according to an 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, cutting the company’s holdings to 842,138 BTC. The coins went at an average of $63,957, about $11,462 below the $75,419 average price Strategy paid for its stack. A bitcoin treasury company is a publicly traded firm that raises money in equity and debt markets specifically to hold bitcoin on its balance sheet rather than to fund an operating business. Michael Saylor’s firm is the largest of them, and it has now spent three consecutive months selling coins instead of buying them, using the proceeds to pay a 12% dividend on preferred stock that has fallen below its issue price.
Key takeaways
- Strategy sold 1,638 BTC for $104.7 million at an average of $63,957, reducing holdings to 842,138 bitcoin worth roughly $52.6 billion.
- Proceeds split almost evenly: $52.4 million funded preferred dividends and $52.3 million went into an $81.2 million buyback of 912,143 STRC shares.
- Strategy also sold 3,011,361 MSTR shares for $290.6 million, lifting its dollar reserve by $250 million to $4 billion.
- The company has not bought bitcoin since June and sits about $10.9 billion underwater on its position at current prices.
Published: August 3, 2026, 16:30 UTC
Every dollar went to the preferred stock
The split of proceeds is the clearest statement Strategy has made about its priorities. Of the $104.7 million raised from the bitcoin sale, $52.4 million paid distributions on preferred stock and $52.3 million went toward repurchasing STRC, the variable-rate perpetual preferred instrument Strategy issued last year. The total repurchase reached $81.2 million, or 912,143 shares, with the balance funded from common stock sales.
That is the second buyback under a $1 billion authorization the company announced on June 29, following a $25 million purchase the week before. Roughly $893.8 million of the authorization remains. Strategy held STRC’s annualized dividend rate at 12% on Friday, declaring semi-monthly payments of $0.50 a share, and said the week’s transactions extended what it calls its dollar duration by 57 days to 2.3 years while tightening STRC’s bitcoin credit spread by five basis points.
Strategy carries about $1.76 billion in annual dividend obligations across its preferred securities. Servicing that number without new capital was never possible from operations, and the company’s software business does not generate enough cash to cover it. The bitcoin is the funding source.
A framework that made selling official
Strategy abandoned its never-sell position at the end of May, disposing of 32 BTC for $2.5 million to fund preferred distributions. That was the firm’s first bitcoin sale since December 2022. In June it published a Digital Credit Capital Framework that set explicit rules for when it would sell, restricting the dollar reserve to preferred dividends and interest payments and authorizing the $1 billion securities repurchase program. Web3 Business News covered the decision to fund buybacks with bitcoin sales when it was announced.
The framework initially permitted up to $1.25 billion of bitcoin disposals. Strategy sold $216 million worth in July, and this week’s $104.7 million brings the total used to about $321 million. The company has since expanded its BTC Monetization Program to allow up to $5 billion in sales to fund the reserve, dividends, interest and securities repurchases.
Selling bitcoin to defend a balance sheet is no longer unusual among treasury firms. Empery Digital liquidated half its bitcoin in July to fund an artificial intelligence data center pivot, a different motive with the same mechanic.
What the sale costs common shareholders
Strategy realized a loss on every coin it sold this week. The company’s aggregate cost basis stands at $63.51 billion, or $75,419 per bitcoin, and it sold at $63,957. Its remaining position, still equal to about 4% of bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap, carries roughly $10.9 billion in paper losses at current prices.
The equity side compounds the dilution. Strategy sold 3,011,361 MSTR shares for $290.6 million net during the period, sending $250 million into the dollar reserve to reach $4 billion and adding $11.7 million to cash. Another $22.7 billion of stock remains available for issuance under that program. Every share sold funds preferred obligations rather than bitcoin, which is why the firm reworked its investor metrics in July to center on net bitcoin per share, the amount left for common holders once debt and preferred claims are removed.
Holdings now sit 5,225 BTC below the 847,363 peak reached in June, a decline of 0.6%. Strategy reported an $8.2 billion second-quarter loss on Thursday, driven almost entirely by unrealized losses on the bitcoin position, against $10 billion in net income a year earlier.
What comes next
Bitcoin traded near $62,600 on Monday, down about 1% on the day, and slipped modestly after the filing. MSTR closed Friday at $93.28, roughly 80% below its 2025 peak, and traded down 1.7% premarket. Broader flows have been weak for weeks, with spot bitcoin ETFs shedding $225 million in late July as bond yields rose.
Analysts are split on where this ends. Benchmark cut its MSTR price target to $435 from $570 after the Q2 call, resetting its year-end bitcoin assumption to $100,000 from $125,000. TD Cowen kept a $260 target. Both firms maintained Buy ratings and both told clients the same thing: returning STRC to its $100 par value is now management’s primary objective, ahead of accumulating bitcoin.
The mechanism runs in one direction while bitcoin stays below Strategy’s cost basis. Preferred dividends come due semi-monthly, the reserve is restricted to paying them, and the reserve is filled by selling either stock or coins. On Myriad, a prediction market owned by Decrypt’s parent company, traders now put a 6% chance on Strategy holding more than 1 million BTC before 2027, down from 12% a week earlier.
Frequently asked questions
How much bitcoin does Strategy hold now?
Strategy holds 842,138 BTC as of Aug. 2, 2026, worth roughly $52.6 billion at current prices. That is about 4% of bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap and 5,225 coins below the company’s June peak of 847,363.
Why is Strategy selling bitcoin instead of buying it?
The company owes about $1.76 billion a year in preferred stock dividends and has committed to returning its STRC preferred shares to par value. Under its Digital Credit Capital Framework, bitcoin sales and stock issuance fund those obligations rather than new purchases.
Is Strategy losing money on the bitcoin it sells?
Yes. Strategy’s average purchase price is $75,419 per bitcoin and it sold this week’s coins at $63,957, a realized loss of $11,462 per coin. Its remaining holdings carry about $10.9 billion in unrealized losses.
Sources: Strategy Form 8-K, Aug. 3, 2026, The Block, Decrypt, Strategy on X.
