Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) purchased 535 bitcoin for approximately $43.0 million at an average price of $80,340 per coin, the company disclosed Monday in a Form 8-K filing. The firm now holds 818,869 BTC, acquired for roughly $61.86 billion at an average cost of $75,540 per bitcoin, and has recorded a bitcoin yield of 9.4% year-to-date in 2026.
The acquisition was funded through $0.1 million raised via Strategy’s STRC ATM program and $42.9 million from its MSTR ATM offering.
The purchase comes six days after executive chairman Michael Saylor told investors on the company’s Q1 earnings call that Strategy was prepared to sell a portion of its bitcoin holdings for the first time. This statement drew immediate scrutiny from a market that had long viewed the company’s accumulation strategy as one-directional.
Saylor: End every year with more bitcoin than you started
Saylor moved to contain the narrative over the weekend. In a podcast interview, he said that for every bitcoin sold, the company would buy 10 to 20 more. “You should be a net accumulator of bitcoin,” he said. “You want to end every year with more bitcoin than you started.” Monday’s purchase suggests the buying has not slowed.
The backdrop is financial pressure. Bitcoin fell 23% in Q1 2026 — from $87,500 to $67,700 — and under FASB fair value accounting rules adopted in January 2025, Strategy is required to mark its full bitcoin position to market each quarter. In Q1, that produced a $12.54 billion unrealized loss running directly through the income statement. More than 434,000 of the company’s coins were purchased above $80,000, generating a $7.6 billion unrealized loss and a $2.2 billion deferred tax asset at a 29% effective tax rate.
It is that deferred tax asset — not a change of heart — that explains Saylor’s openness to selling. The same move was made before. On Dec. 22, 2022, Strategy sold 704 BTC at $16,776 per coin and repurchased 810 BTC two days later in a tax-loss harvesting maneuver designed to carry capital losses back against prior gains. The structure now is larger, but the logic is identical.
CEO Phong Le put the decision framework on the record during the earnings call. “I believe in math over ideology,” Le said. “At the point where selling bitcoin versus selling equity to pay a dividend is better for our bitcoin-per-share, and for our common shareholders, we will do it.”
The company carries $8.2 billion in convertible debt and owes $1.5 billion annually in dividend obligations tied to its perpetual preferred stock, STRC. Both create real cash demands that equity issuance alone may not always cover at favorable terms.
Bitcoin per share — the ratio of total BTC holdings to diluted shares outstanding — remains the metric every financing decision runs through. JPMorgan analysts wrote last week that if Strategy maintains its current pace, total bitcoin purchases in 2026 could reach approximately $30 billion.
Strategy’s bitcoin and software business
The company’s software division, long treated as background noise, is gaining attention. Le said Q1 2026 was its strongest quarter in a decade, with revenue up 12%. Strategy has built an internal AI infrastructure layer called “Mosaic” and is rebuilding core workflows using multiple AI models. “I’m sometimes asked why a bitcoin treasury company should also operate a software business,” Le wrote Sunday on X. “The two create powerful and unique synergies.”
MSTR shares closed up 4.31% Friday at $187.59. The stock has gained 41.7% over the past month, though it remains down 18.9% over the past six months. In pre-market trading Monday, shares were up roughly 1%. Bitcoin traded around $81,000.
On Sunday evening, Saylor posted two words to X: “Back to work. BTC.” He has made similar posts before prior purchase announcements. Monday’s filing confirmed the pattern.
