Strategy Skips Bitcoin Buy, Spends $205M on STRC Buybacks
Strategy paused Bitcoin buying for the first time since mid-September, spending $204.9M on STRC buybacks instead. Holdings hold at 848,517 BTC, USD Cash fell 46% to $242.4M, and an MSCI index decision looms November 11.
Strategy bought zero Bitcoin last week and put $205 million into repurchasing its own STRC preferred stock instead. The company announced the update on Monday, October 26, covering October 19 to 25.
According to Strategy's SEC filing, it sold no shares through its at-the-market (ATM) program, the channel it uses to raise cash for BTC purchases. Holdings stay at 848,517 BTC, acquired for $64.02 billion at an average of about $75,446 per coin. Saylor posted the same figures on X, along with $5.1 billion in USD assets as of 10/25/26.
The buyback totaled 2,068,459 STRC shares for about $204.9 million, up from the $193.1 million spent the week before, when Strategy also added 267 BTC for $22M. It is the first Bitcoin pause since mid-September. Two weeks ago Strategy bought 250 BTC for $21.5 million.
The October tally shows where the money is going. Since the month began, Strategy has spent roughly $664 million on STRC buybacks against $72.3 million for 851 BTC. That is about nine dollars of preferred repurchases for every dollar of Bitcoin.
The cash came from the dollar pile. USD Cash dropped about 46% to $242.4 million from $447.3 million, while the USD Reserve held at $4.83 billion. About $956.8 million remains under the preferred repurchase program, which was raised to $3 billion from $2 billion a week earlier. A separate MSTR common stock buyback has $1 billion left.
Saylor also put out credit metrics for STRC:
"USD Duration is 3.4 yrs and STRC's BTC Credit is 54 bps assuming 10% BTC ARR, 40% BTC Vol, and a BTC price of $81,200."
Michael Saylor
Market reaction
BTC changed hands near $79,992 at Monday's US open, after peaking at $84,777 on Wednesday according to CoinGecko. The 24-hour range ran from $79,331 to $80,825. Volume was below average, with traders sitting on their hands ahead of the FOMC and US PCE inflation data.
MSTR slipped about 2% in premarket, to roughly $142.80 to $143.16 depending on the print. STRC sat near $99.35 against its $100 par value. Last week's buyback worked out to roughly $99 a share on average, so Strategy is retiring paper just under par. Clear Street still raised its MSTR price target to $211 with a buy rating.
What it means
The weekly Saylor bid is missing, and that is worth watching if you lean on it as a floor. With STRC trading under par, the company is pointing its cash at its preferred rather than stacking sats. Strategy has paused Bitcoin buying before while redirecting funds to STRC.
The other overhang is MSCI. The index provider finalized a rule on October 15 making "non-operating companies" ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes from the close of November 30, with the affected list due November 11. Strategy could be cut, which would force index-tracking funds to sell. Saylor has urged MSCI to drop what he called a "discriminatory" rule. Also on the calendar: the October 28 shareholder vote on daily STRC dividends.
