Saylor’s Strategy Halts Crypto Buys for $139 Million Stock Buyback

The world’s largest corporate Bitcoin buyer has hit the brakes. Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) released its weekly report, revealing a rare tactical shift: the company did not buy a single new Bitcoin, leaving its holdings at 845,050 BTC.

Instead, Saylor began shedding excess fiat cash, directing $139 million toward repurchasing the company’s own STRC preferred shares.

Strategy’s treasury currently holds $6.4 billion in dollar-denominated assets with a duration of 3.9 years. By deploying cash to buy back its own securities, the company is optimizing its debt burden. Saylor revealed the internal math: assuming a Bitcoin price of $77,266, an annual return of 10%, and volatility of 40%, the credit spread on STRC shares stands at 57 basis points.

The instrument operates as an isolated gateway: it generates a variable yield for investors through treasury operations while fully separating credit returns from the turbulence and fluctuations of BTC’s price.

Meanwhile, a new whale has emerged in the corporate Bitcoin market

While Saylor waits and reduces his dollar holdings, a head-on clash of strategies is taking shape in the market. A young competitor, Matt Cole’s Strive Inc., demonstrated the opposite approach over the same period.

Using a similar preferred equity instrument, SATA, Strive issued additional shares near their $100 par value and, without taking on conventional debt, purchased 469 BTC for $36.6 million, at an average of $77,954 per coin. This brought Strive’s reserves to exactly 25,000 BTC, worth $1.93 billion, pushing its amplification ratio to 53.5%.

September’s balance of power is clear: while new players use the “crypto stock” model as a conveyor belt for debt-free Bitcoin purchases at current prices, Saylor’s Strategy has chosen to pause. The industry’s largest whale decided that, with Bitcoin above $77,000, restructuring its own capital and putting depreciating dollars to use was more efficient than buying coins outright.