Strategy spent $193.1 million last week buying back its own preferred stock. It spent $22.1 million buying bitcoin in the same week. Michael Saylor's firm filed both numbers with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday1. His preferred stock, called STRC, carries one promise: Strategy wants it trading near $100. Monday's filing shows what that promise now costs, and the bill keeps growing.
What STRC Promises, and Why It Slipped
STRC is Strategy's variable rate preferred stock. It pays a 12 percent dividend, split into two payments a month2. Strategy set a target range for the price: $99 to $100. The company keeps new STRC shares priced at $100 or higher. That policy sets a floor on paper. The market alone decides whether the floor holds.
Saylor built STRC as a second funding line beside Strategy's common stock. Common shares move with bitcoin's price, and new sales dilute the company's existing owners. STRC instead pays a fixed dividend, much closer to a bond than to common stock. Holders accept less upside in exchange for a payout Strategy has pledged to protect near $100.
STRC's price climbed back near $100 this month, then slipped again. It closed at $97.72 on Oct. 16, two days before Strategy's latest filing2. The stock had briefly touched $99.90 earlier that week, before MSCI's index exclusion news pulled it back down3. Strategy raises cash for bitcoin through STRC and several other preferred issues, a path that keeps its bitcoin holdings in place.
Both sides, in their own words
Does defending one stock price now cost more than the bitcoin buying it was built to fund?
“We will continue to evaluate the rate monthly. Our corporate objective is for STRC to trade over time at $99-$100”
“Was the pref model a mistake? We believe the answer to that question is yes”
The Cost of Defending Par
Monday's filing shows the cost plainly. Strategy bought back 1,938,780 STRC shares for $193.1 million, at $99.60 each on average, between Oct. 12 and 181. It bought 267 bitcoin the same week for $22.1 million, at $82,900 a coin. Unchained ran the math: STRC drew nearly nine dollars for every dollar spent on bitcoin that week4.
Strategy Spent Nearly 9x More Holding STRC Than Buying Bitcoin, Oct. 12-18
Cash spent in one week, in millions of dollars, by what it bought
- STRC buybacks: $193.1M
- Bitcoin purchases: $22.1M
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| STRC buybacks | $193.1M |
| Bitcoin purchases | $22.1M |
Strategy's board raised its buyback ceiling the same week. The digital credit securities program can now spend $3 billion, up from $2 billion1. Only $1.16 billion of that sits unspent.
Two separate cash lines paid for all of it. Strategy's USD Reserve held $4.83 billion on Oct. 18, down from $4.88 billion a week earlier5. Its USD Cash, the pool Strategy draws on for buybacks and bitcoin alike, fell to $447.3 million1. Discretionary cash of that second kind dropped 72 percent since Aug. 30.
A stock index question adds pressure on top of that drop. MSCI groups Strategy with holding companies defined by their balance sheet rather than a product or service. The index provider may remove those companies from its benchmarks on Nov. 305. CryptoSlate put the forced selling risk from passive funds tracking that benchmark at $2.8 billion if that happens.
Matthew Sigel, VanEck's head of digital assets research, linked the stock price to Strategy's next bitcoin buy. A return to par could let Strategy resume larger bitcoin buying through its stock sale program, Yahoo Finance reported3.
Saylor's Case for Paying It
Michael Saylor runs Strategy as its executive chairman. He set the STRC target himself, back in June. “We will continue to evaluate the rate monthly. Our corporate objective is for STRC to trade over time at $99-$100,” Saylor said then6. He has repeated that target every time STRC drifted from it since.
Saylor framed October's bitcoin buy the same plain way. "We found room for more orange," he wrote when Strategy disclosed the new 267 bitcoin7. The company still holds 848,517 bitcoin, bought for $64.02 billion, an average of $75,446 each1. That stake equals more than 4 percent of all bitcoin that will ever exist. Regular weekly buys built that pile, one filing at a time, since Strategy adopted bitcoin as its core asset. Saylor treats STRC's defense as the price of keeping that engine funded while the bitcoin itself stays untouched.
K33's Case Against the Preferred Stock Trade
Skeptics read the same numbers differently. Vetle Lunde, K33 Research's head of research, studied what STRC has cost Strategy since its expansion. He found it added $725 million to Strategy's annual dividend bill. That expansion pushed the total preferred dividend bill to $1.56 billion a year, up from about $830 million earlier in 20268.
Context explains why Strategy leaned on STRC so heavily. The company raised roughly $7.5 billion through STRC in the first half of 2026. That money bought nearly 100,000 bitcoin over those six months8. Lunde's math asks whether the dividend bill that financing created now outweighs the bitcoin it bought.
That bill carries a bitcoin price tag too. Lunde calculated the opportunity cost at roughly 8,740 bitcoin, priced at $83,000 each8. He compared Strategy's actual bitcoin count against a version of the company that skipped the STRC funded buys. The real Strategy held 848,250 bitcoin on Oct. 12. His hypothetical version would have held 843,303.
Strategy Holds 4,947 More Bitcoin With STRC Financing, K33 Says, Oct. 12, 2026
Bitcoin held Oct. 12, 2026: Strategy's actual count versus K33's hypothetical count
- K33's hypothetical, STRC skipped
- Strategy's actual holdings
Source: The Block [8].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | K33's hypothetical, STRC skipped | Strategy's actual holdings |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin held, Oct. 12, 2026 | 843,303 BTC | 848,250 BTC |
Lunde's verdict was blunt. “Was the pref model a mistake? We believe the answer to that question is yes,” he wrote8. His math suggests the dividend burden erases STRC's bitcoin buying edge within about seven months.
What Each Side Needs to Be True
Saylor's case holds if STRC's buyers keep believing the $100 floor is real. Strategy's own spending can support that belief only as long as discretionary cash lasts. That cash already fell 72 percent since Aug. 305. Lunde's case holds if the dividend bill keeps growing faster than the bitcoin it bought. His own math puts that crossover roughly seven months out8. Readers watching Strategy's next few filings get to see which deadline arrives first, Saylor's demand returning or Lunde's bill catching up.
A Day Solana and Circle Also Posted Numbers
Strategy shared Monday's spotlight with two other names. Solana's network processed 8.92 billion transactions other than validator votes in the third quarter of 2026. That volume marks a 104 percent jump from the 4.38 billion such transactions Solana counted in the fourth quarter of 20259.
Circle picked up its own honor the same day. Money20/20 awarded Circle's Payments Network bronze in the Payments category10. Circle credited more than 175 financial institutions with helping build the network. That figure echoes the 175 institutions its own second quarter filing counted as enrolled by June 30. Enrollment grew 29 percent from the quarter before it. The network's transaction volume reached $14.7 billion on an annualized basis at that same quarter's end. That mark is a 76 percent jump from the quarter before.
By the numbers
- Strategy spent $193.1 million buying back 1,938,780 STRC shares from Oct. 12 to 18, 2026, at an average of $99.60 each1.
- Bitcoin bought that same week cost $22.1 million, 267 coins at $82,900 on average1.
- Total holdings reached 848,517 bitcoin as of Oct. 18, 2026, bought for $64.02 billion1.
- K33 Research ties STRC's expansion to $725 million in added annual dividend payments8.
- Discretionary cash fell 72 percent since Aug. 30, down to $447.3 million5.
- Solana processed 8.92 billion transactions other than validator votes in the third quarter, up 104 percent from the fourth quarter of 20259.
- Circle's payments network counts more than 175 financial institutions, honored with Money20/20 bronze on Oct. 1910.
What to watch
Strategy reports third quarter earnings on Oct. 29, the next test of this spending pace5. MSCI posts its final index deletion list on Nov. 11, the date that would trigger the $2.8 billion in forced selling CryptoSlate flagged. Readers can track STRC's price against the $100 line Strategy keeps defending. They can also watch whether Solana's growth and Circle's institution count hold up next quarter. Lunde's seven month estimate gives a rough date for when the dividend bill could erase STRC's bitcoin edge entirely.
Sources
- "Strategy Inc, Form 8-K," U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Oct. 19, 2026, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001050446/000119312526424688/mstr-20261019.htm
- Lawrence Mondal, "Strategy Targets $99–$100 for STRC as Buyback Cap Reaches $3 Billion," crypto.news, Oct. 19, 2026, https://crypto.news/strategy-strc-99-100-target-3-billion-buyback/
- Prabhjote Gill, "Michael Saylor's Strategy Boosts STRC Buyback Program To $3B, Keeps BTC Buying Muted," Yahoo Finance, Oct. 19, 2026, https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/michael-saylor-strategy-boosts-strc-132007239.html
- "Strategy Raises Its Preferred Buyback Cap to $3 Billion After Another $193 Million STRC Week," Unchained, Oct. 19, 2026, https://unchainedcrypto.com/strategy-raises-its-preferred-buyback-cap-to-3-billion-after-another-193-million-strc-week/
- Oluwapelumi Adejumo, "Strategy's Discretionary Cash Falls 72% as Buyback Authorization Rises to $3 Billion," CryptoSlate, Oct. 19, 2026, https://cryptoslate.com/strategys-discretionary-cash-falls-72-as-buyback-authorization-rises-to-3-billion/
- Kyle Baird, "Strategy's MSTR, STRC Shares Recover After Brutal Week as Saylor Unveils New Buyback Plans," The Block, June 29, 2026, https://www.theblock.co/post/406568/strategy-mstr-strc-shares-recover-after-brutal-week-saylor-unveils-new-buyback-plans
- "'We Found Room for More Orange': Michael Saylor's Strategy Buys Another 267 Bitcoin for $22 Million," The Block, Oct. 19, 2026, https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-10-19-we-found-room-for-more-orange-michael-saylors-strategy-buys-more-bitcoin-418895
- James Hunt, "Strategy's Preferred Stock Financing May Cost It Bitcoin, K33 Argues," The Block, Oct. 14, 2026, https://www.theblock.co/news/markets/2026-10-14-strategys-preferred-stock-financing-may-cost-it-bitcoin-k33-argues-418543
- Estefano Gomez, "Solana Non-Vote Transactions Surge 104% in Q3 2026, Reaching 8.92B," CryptoBriefing, Oct. 19, 2026, https://cryptobriefing.com/solana-non-vote-transactions-surge-104-in-q3-2026-reaching-892b/
- Lawrence Mondal, "Circle Cites 175+ Institutions as CPN Wins Money20/20 Payments Bronze," crypto.news, Oct. 19, 2026, https://crypto.news/circle-cpn-175-institutions-money2020-bronze/