Strategy Bitcoin Buys Slow as Company Focus Remains on STRC Buybacks

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• Strategy added a modest amount of Bitcoin last week, funded through common share sales.
• Most of the week’s capital went to repurchasing STRC preferred shares.
• The company expanded its digital credit buyback authorization.
• Long-term Bitcoin holders have slowed the pace of their selling.

Strategy bitcoin purchases slowed to 267 BTC between October 12 and October 18, as the largest corporate holder of the asset paid $22.1 million at an average price of about $82,900 and lifted its holdings to 848,517 BTC, according to its latest weekly disclosure. The same update shows that the company spent far more, $193.1 million, buying back 1.94 million shares of its STRC preferred stock, and that it raised its Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program from $2 billion to $3 billion, leaving $1.16 billion of capacity unused.

The Bitcoin itself was paid for with $22.0 million raised by selling 140,872 MSTR class A shares through at-the-market sales, a method in which the company sells new shares gradually on the open market instead of in a single large offering, plus $0.1 million of cash. Strategy also reported $5.3 billion in USD assets, split between a $4.83 billion USD Reserve set aside for preferred dividends and debt interest and $447.3 million of USD Cash that management can use more freely. The STRC repurchases came out of that second pool, while the reserve paid $45.5 million in preferred dividends during the same week.

Strategy has repurchased $193M of $STRC and acquired 267 $BTC. As of 10/18/26, we hold 848,517 BTC and $5.3B of USD Assets. We have also increased the size of our Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program from $2.0B to $3.0B. $MSTR https://t.co/ea29gd1OO5

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) October 19, 2026

Nine to one in favor of buybacks

Measured in dollars, Strategy put almost $9 into STRC repurchases for every $1 it spent on Bitcoin last week, which extends a shift that began in early September, when the company spent $176.3 million on STRC and bought no Bitcoin at all. STRC, marketed by Strategy under the name Stretch, is a perpetual preferred share with a variable monthly dividend, and the company adjusts that rate with the aim of keeping the price close to its $100 face value. The repurchases worked out to about $99.50 per share, just under that level.

Every STRC share Strategy retires removes a monthly dividend payment for good, and buying slightly below par lets the company cancel that obligation for less than the $100 face value on which the dividend is calculated. A preferred stock that holds near $100 is also easier to keep selling later, so defending its price protects one of the main channels Strategy uses to raise money for Bitcoin.

The arithmetic behind the authorization increase shows how heavily the program has already been used. With $1.16 billion left under a $3 billion ceiling, Strategy has spent about $1.84 billion on repurchases, which means only around $160 million remained under the original $2 billion limit before the extra $1 billion was added. Strategy reported $1.19 billion of remaining capacity on September 7, so it has spent roughly $1.03 billion on repurchases in the six weeks since.

Long-term holders spend less often

On-chain data points to a calmer phase among the market’s most patient investors. Axel Adler Jr, an on-chain analyst who publishes research built on CryptoQuant data, tracks how many of the previous 15 days saw long-term holder supply decline, with long-term holders usually defined as wallets that have kept their coins for at least 155 days. The reading hit 13 out of 15 days between October 6 and 10, the highest in a year, before easing to 10 by October 19 as the group’s balance grew over the last three days.

Bitcoin long-term holders have cut their holdings by 345K BTC since late July. In early October, they were spending coins almost every day, but the pace has slowed.

What this means for Bitcoin supply and which signal to watch next – in the new Morning Brief 281👇… pic.twitter.com/rAUIYJ6YuP

— Axel 💎🙌 Adler Jr (@AxelAdlerJr) October 19, 2026

Long-term holder supply peaked at 16.41 million BTC on July 30 and now stands at 16.06 million BTC, a drop of 345,000 BTC, or about 2%. The group’s holdings fell by 9,000 BTC over the past week, yet they increased by 40,000 BTC in the last three days. Their average purchase price sits at $48,600 against a market price near $82,800, so these investors remain roughly 70% in profit and face little pressure to stop taking it.

Against those figures, Strategy’s purchase looks small. The 9,000 BTC that long-term holders released in a single week is more than 30 times what the company bought, and the 345,000 BTC distributed since late July equals about 40% of Strategy’s entire treasury, which leaves the rest of the market to absorb most of that supply.

Bitcoin reclaims its short-term averages

On the four-hour timeframe, Bitcoin has traded between roughly $80,000 and $84,000 for most of October after sliding from a high near $86,800 early in the month, and buyers defended the $80,000 area twice, on October 8 and October 15, with brief dips just below it that reversed within hours.

At $82,632, Bitcoin now sits above both its 20-period exponential moving average at $82,034 and its 50-period average at $82,339. On this chart those lines track the average price of roughly the last three and eight days, so trading above them means people who bought during that stretch are, on average, sitting on small gains. The MACD reading has turned positive as well, a sign that short-term momentum has shifted toward buyers, although the move remains modest given how narrow the range is. The next hurdle lies between $83,200 and $84,000, where rallies stalled from October 12 to 14.

The cash runs out before the cap

Adler’s indicator offers a clear reference point. A return to its usual level of 7 out of 15 days would mean long-term holders are selling noticeably less often, reducing the supply the market has to absorb, while a climb back to 13-15 days would signal that daily selling has resumed. According to Adler, if the group’s holdings rise for several consecutive weeks, coins entering the cohort would begin to outweigh its spending.

For Strategy, the split between Bitcoin purchases and STRC repurchases in the coming weekly filings will show how long it can keep defending its preferred stock before the buybacks start to depend on fresh capital. MSTR shareholders have a direct stake in that answer, since their dilution funded last week’s Bitcoin buy, and any new share sales to refill USD Cash would add to it.

At last week’s pace of $193.1 million, the remaining $1.16 billion of authorization would last about six more weeks, but the $447.3 million of USD Cash covers only around two more weeks of repurchases unless Strategy raises new money, and that pool has already shrunk from $1.44 billion in early September. That timing runs into the release of Strategy’s third-quarter results, where management is likely to face questions on how it ranks buybacks against new Bitcoin purchases.