Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) sold 1,638 Bitcoin for $104.7 million between July 27 and August 2, 2026, at an average price of $63,957 per coin — roughly $11,462 below the company's aggregate cost basis of $75,419. The sale, the company's third BTC disposition this year, funded $52.4 million in pr...
"Not One Satoshi." — Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman, Strategy Inc., responding to whether he personally had sold Bitcoin, August 5, 2026
Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) sold 1,638 Bitcoin for $104.7 million between July 27 and August 2, 2026, at an average price of $63,957 per coin — roughly $11,462 below the company's aggregate cost basis of $75,419. The sale, the company's third BTC disposition this year, funded $52.4 million in preferred stock dividend payments and $52.3 million in STRC share repurchases.
The transaction is the latest symptom of structural stress on the corporate Bitcoin treasury model that Strategy popularized beginning in 2020. With Bitcoin trading 49% below its October 2025 all-time high of $126,198, Strategy's 842,138 BTC position carries an unrealized loss of approximately $9 billion. Its Q2 2026 GAAP net loss reached $8.62 billion, driven almost entirely by an $8.32 billion mark-to-market writedown under fair-value accounting rules. The stock has declined 34% year-to-date and trades at a basic mNAV (market capitalization relative to Bitcoin holdings value) of 0.68x — meaning the equity market values Strategy's shares at roughly two-thirds of the Bitcoin they represent.
Strategy is not alone. At least five other public companies — Riot Platforms, Empery Digital, Genius Group, Nakamoto Inc., and Bitdeer — have sold Bitcoin from corporate treasuries in 2026. Bhutan's government has also reduced its sovereign BTC holdings by 3,103 coins. The common trigger across these dispositions is not loss of conviction in Bitcoin, but the structural cost of carrying leveraged, yield-bearing capital structures through a prolonged drawdown.
Strategy's 2026 Bitcoin sales total 5,258 BTC for approximately $323 million across three transactions:
| Period | BTC Sold | Avg. Sale Price | Proceeds | Cost Basis Gap | |--------|----------|-----------------|----------|----------------| | May 26–31 | 32 | ~$78,125 | ~$2.5M | Above basis | | Late June–Early July | 3,588 | ~$60,340 | ~$216M | Below basis | | July 27–Aug 2 | 1,638 | $63,957 | $104.7M | -$11,462/coin |
The first sale in May was a small, above-cost test transaction — Strategy's first BTC disposition since 2022. The subsequent sales were materially larger and executed below the company's $75,419 aggregate cost basis. The July–August sale alone crystallized an approximate loss of $18.8 million against acquisition cost.
Strategy's total holdings after the August 2 sale stand at 842,138 BTC, acquired for a total of $63.51 billion. At a Bitcoin price of approximately $64,500, the position carries a mark-to-market value of roughly $54.3 billion — an unrealized deficit of approximately $9.2 billion.
On June 29, 2026, the company's board authorized a BTC Monetization Program permitting sales of up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin to replenish its USD Reserve. That authorization remains largely unused, implying further sales are structurally anticipated.
The driver behind Strategy's forced selling is not a change in thesis but a change in capital structure. The company has issued four classes of perpetual preferred stock — STRK, STRF, STRD, and STRC — at cumulative coupon rates ranging from 8% to 10%, all with $100 par value and quarterly or semi-monthly dividend schedules.
Total annual preferred stock dividend obligations have grown to approximately $1.75 billion, according to Strategy's most recent disclosures. This figure has increased throughout 2026 as additional preferred series were issued to fund Bitcoin acquisitions.
The company maintains a $2.55 billion USD Reserve, explicitly earmarked for dividend coverage and debt service. Combined with the $1.25 billion BTC Monetization authorization, Strategy reports approximately $3.80 billion in total preferred dividend liquidity coverage — equivalent to approximately 25.9 months of payments at current rates.
The structural tension is straightforward: the preferred shares are perpetual obligations that demand cash regardless of Bitcoin's price. When Bitcoin trades above Strategy's cost basis, the model generates a surplus that funds further accumulation. When Bitcoin trades below cost basis, the company must either raise new capital, sell Bitcoin at a loss, or deplete cash reserves. All three are occurring simultaneously.
Strategy reported Q2 2026 results on July 30. The headline figures:
The Q2 loss is predominantly an accounting artifact. Under ASU 2023-08, the FASB's fair-value standard adopted in 2025, Strategy must mark its Bitcoin to market quarterly with gains and losses flowing through net income. When Bitcoin rose in 2025, this produced $10 billion in reported profits. Now that Bitcoin has declined 49% from its peak, the same standard produces corresponding losses.
The underlying software business — Strategy's original enterprise analytics platform — generated $122.4 million in quarterly revenue with a 66.6% gross margin. This business, however, is dwarfed by the Bitcoin position by a factor of roughly 440x.
The company added 174,895 BTC in the first half of 2026, a 25% increase in holdings, even as it simultaneously sold 3,620 BTC. Net accumulation continued, but the financing cost to maintain it is now visible in the income statement and the stock price.
Strategy's equity trades at a basic mNAV of 0.68x as of August 3, 2026 — meaning the stock market assigns $0.68 of value for every $1.00 of Bitcoin on the company's balance sheet.
This metric is the lifeblood of the Strategy model. When mNAV exceeds 1.0x, the company can issue equity above the per-share Bitcoin value, use the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin, and mechanically increase BTC per share. This is the so-called "flywheel" that powered Strategy's 2024–2025 rally.
When mNAV falls below 1.0x, the flywheel reverses. Issuing equity at a discount to NAV would dilute existing shareholders' per-share Bitcoin exposure. Strategy's stock dropped from approximately $340 in late 2025 to $100.20 as of August 8, 2026 — a decline of over 70% from peak levels.
The enterprise mNAV — which includes debt and preferred equity in the numerator — stood at 1.02x on the same date. This means the full capital structure (equity + $8.2 billion convertible debt + $14.4 billion preferred stock) prices at rough parity with the Bitcoin holdings. The equity cushion above the senior claims has nearly vanished.
For context, Strategy's convertible debt maturity schedule shows approximately $1.2 billion due in late 2027, with further maturities of $1.01 billion in 2028, $800 million in 2029, and $604 million in 2030. These obligations layer on top of the preferred dividend requirements.
Strategy's sales are the most visible manifestation of a broader pattern. At least five other public companies and one sovereign entity have reduced Bitcoin treasury holdings in 2026:
| Entity | BTC Sold | Proceeds | Reason | |--------|----------|----------|--------| | Riot Platforms (RIOT) | ~500+ | ~$234M+ | AI/HPC pivot; sold ~$200M in late 2025, continued in 2026 | | Empery Digital (EMPD) | 370 | $24.7M | Term loan repayment; share price down 75% from 2025 high | | Genius Group (GNS) | 84 (full liquidation) | $8.5M | Debt repayment; treasury reduced to zero | | Nakamoto Inc. | 600 | $48M | Lender repayment ($45M); authorized $25M buyback | | Bitdeer | ~469 (near-full liquidation) | N/A | AI cloud infrastructure pivot; holdings reduced to 31 BTC | | Bhutan (sovereign) | 3,103 | N/A | Gradual reduction from 13,000+ BTC peak |
The total public-company Bitcoin treasury stands at approximately 1,164,800 BTC, or 5% of Bitcoin's 21 million maximum supply. Strategy alone accounts for 72% of this total.
The pattern across sellers is consistent: companies that financed Bitcoin acquisitions with debt or preferred equity face servicing costs that do not adjust for Bitcoin's price. When the asset depreciates, the cost of carry increases in relative terms, eventually forcing liquidation.
Riot Platforms represents a distinct case — pivoting capital allocation toward AI and high-performance computing, selling Bitcoin not to cover existing obligations but to fund a strategic shift. This reflects a separate pressure: competing corporate priorities in an environment where AI infrastructure investment offers more predictable near-term returns than holding a volatile, non-yielding asset.
Strategy's situation illustrates a specific structural risk in the leveraged Bitcoin treasury model. The company's capital stack now consists of:
The Bitcoin covers all senior claims with approximately 2.4x coverage. This provides a substantial buffer before any solvency concern emerges. Strategy is not facing a credit crisis.
The pressure is operational, not existential. With $1.75 billion in annual preferred dividends and debt service layered on top, Strategy must generate approximately $146 million per month in cash — either from its $122 million/quarter software business, from new capital raises, or from Bitcoin sales. The software business covers roughly one month's obligations per quarter.
The $2.55 billion USD Reserve provides a runway, but it is finite. If Bitcoin remains below Strategy's cost basis through 2027, the company would need to either sell additional BTC at a loss, issue equity at mNAV below 1.0x (dilutive), or restructure its preferred obligations. None of these options are catastrophic individually, but each degrades the flywheel economics that underpinned the model.
The corporate Bitcoin treasury model, as popularized by Strategy beginning in 2020, is undergoing its first sustained stress test. The model functions as designed when Bitcoin appreciates — generating accounting profits, enabling equity issuance above NAV, and mechanically increasing per-share BTC exposure. The model's behavior in a prolonged drawdown is now visible: forced asset sales below cost basis, a disabled equity flywheel, and a growing gap between fixed obligations and a floating-value asset.
Strategy's $2.55 billion cash reserve and $1.25 billion monetization authorization provide adequate runway through mid-2028 at current burn rates, assuming no further capital raises. The approximately $9 billion unrealized loss on its Bitcoin position is a mark-to-market figure that would reverse if Bitcoin recovers above $75,419 — which is approximately 17% above current prices.
The broader corporate treasury sell-off — encompassing Riot Platforms, Empery Digital, Genius Group, and others — demonstrates that Strategy's experience is not idiosyncratic but structural. Companies that layer yield-bearing obligations on top of a non-yielding, volatile asset face a deterministic cash flow problem during extended drawdowns. The economic value of the Bitcoin treasury model ultimately depends on whether Bitcoin's long-term appreciation rate exceeds the weighted-average cost of capital used to acquire it. That question remains open.