Strategy Pauses Bitcoin Buys While Propping Up STRC Near $100

Strategy, the corporate world's biggest bitcoin holder, didn't buy a single satoshi the week of October 19–25. Instead it dropped $204.9 million repurchasing its own STRC preferred shares — and that choice tells you everything about where the playbook stands right now.

Here's the mechanics. STRC, nicknamed Stretch, is a perpetual preferred share that pays a variable monthly dividend. Strategy explicitly said it won't sell new STRC below its $100 par value. Above par, it becomes a cash machine: sell shares, collect proceeds, buy bitcoin. Right now STRC is hovering around $99.36 — tantalizingly close but not there yet. The company still has roughly $17.5 billion of STRC available under its at-the-market program, sitting idle. CEO Phong Le spelled it out on Bloomberg TV back in July: get STRC back to par, issue more, buy bitcoin. The social media crowd isn't wrong about the trigger — it's just not a new revelation.

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The numbers make the trade-off stark. Over a recent two-week stretch, Strategy spent roughly $18 on its own preferred shares for every $1 it put into bitcoin. It still owns 848,517 BTC at an average cost near $75,446 per coin, so this isn't a retreat — it's a cash-flow redirect. But for bitcoin traders, Strategy has been the market's most dependable corporate buyer. Pull that bid for a week and you feel it. Bitcoin dipped below $80,000 on October 27, with analysts flagging both ETF outflows and the Strategy pause as contributing headwinds.

Don't confuse "near par" with "at par that holds." The recent STRC recovery has been propped up by Strategy buying its own paper at an average of roughly $99.06 a share. That support costs real cash. After last week's buybacks, Strategy's liquid cash balance sat at $242.4 million. The board raised its buyback authorization to $3 billion on October 19, with about $957 million remaining. The real test is whether outside investors show up to buy new STRC issuance above $100 — because if demand is thin, fresh shares push the price back under par and the cycle repeats. Saylor's informal target of hitting par by September 8 already slipped. The last dollar is always the hardest.

The earnings call Thursday after the US close is your next data point. Listen for any change to the STRC dividend rate, updated buyback guidance, and — most importantly — whether management sets a concrete timeline for restarting STRC sales. Vague "once we hit par" language won't move the needle. Continue reading at Forexlive.