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Ahmed Barakat
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In the latest Bitcoin news, Strategy (MSTR) sold 1,638 BTC for approximately $105 million last week, disclosed via an SEC filing dated August 3, 2026, marking the firm’s third discrete Bitcoin disposal of 2026 and its sixth consecutive week without a purchase.
The proceeds, combined with $290.6 million raised through common stock issuance, funded $81.2 million in STRC preferred stock repurchases and added $250 million to Strategy’s USD reserve, pushing that figure to $4 billion.
The average sale price for the latest tranche was roughly $64,000 per BTC, meaningfully below Strategy’s overall average acquisition cost of $75,419.
With 842,138 BTC on the books at a total cost of $63.51 billion, the company is sitting on a paper loss of approximately $10.9 billion at current prices, according to Arkham Research.
MSTR slipped 1.9% in pre-market trading following the disclosure, with Bitcoin near $63,500.
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Bitcoin News: Why Strategy Keeps Selling Below Cost
The mechanics here matter. Strategy finances its Bitcoin treasury through a stack of debt instruments and preferred-stock obligations, STRC, STRK, STRD, STRF, and STRE, all carrying fixed or variable dividends that must be settled in U.S. dollars.
Quarterly preferred dividend costs have surged from $49.1 million a year ago to $400.7 million, according to supplementary research, leaving the firm with no viable alternative to regular cash generation.
To codify this shift, Michael Saylor’s firm introduced the Digital Credit Capital Framework in late June 2026, which explicitly authorizes BTC sales to fund dividends, debt service, and repurchases.
This formalizes what was effectively already happening: Bitcoin is no longer treated as an untouchable reserve but as an active liquidity source. The “never sell” chapter has closed.
The sale proceeds were split between two uses: a portion went directly to STRC dividend payments, and the remainder funded the buyback of 912,143 STRC shares for $81.2 million in aggregate, according to the primary source.
Repurchasing preferred shares below their $100 stated value is arithmetically accretive. Strategy retires $100 of future obligations for less than $100 in cash. The question is whether the pace of buybacks is sufficient to push STRC meaningfully closer to par.
STRC closed July at $89.46, and Strategy confirmed it will hold the annual dividend rate at 12% rather than raise it further, stating it will not recommend an increase until shares trade consistently near $100.
At the current discount, that 12% stated yield translates to an effective yield of roughly 13.4% for buyers in the secondary market – a spread that signals the market still prices in meaningful execution risk on this crypto treasury model.
Strategy’s Q2 results further illustrated the financial pressure, with an $8.22 billion net loss driven largely by unrealized Bitcoin impairments.
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Six Weeks Without a BTC Purchase: What That Signals
The accumulation pause is now the most structurally significant data point that Strategy produces each week. Since early 2020, the company’s identity and a meaningful portion of MSTR’s equity premium over net asset value rested on relentless BTC acquisition.
Six weeks of no purchases, alongside three sales totaling roughly 5,258 BTC and $323 million in proceeds, represents a clean break from that pattern.
All three 2026 disposals have been executed below the $75,419 average cost basis, meaning Strategy is realizing losses on each tranche to service obligations that compound regardless of Bitcoin’s price.
The $4 billion USD reserve, which the company says covers approximately 2.3 years of preferred dividends and interest, provides a buffer, but it also represents capital that is not working in BTC. The opportunity cost calculus cuts both ways: if Bitcoin recovers above $75,000, Strategy’s pause looks costly; if BTC extends its decline, the cash cushion looks prudent.
Strategy remains one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin globally despite the reductions, with 842,138 BTC still on its balance sheet. The disposals to date are a small fraction of total holdings, and the firm has not signaled any intent to substantially reduce its BTC position.
What has changed is the framing: Bitcoin is now explicitly a funding source for a complex institutional treasury structure, not simply a one-directional accumulation play.
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