Strategy stock dropped 1.9% in pre-market trading following the disclosure of its latest Bitcoin sale, with Bitcoin trading near $63,500 as the market reacted to the company's continued monetization of its cryptocurrency holdings. The stock had previously recorded a 1.7% relief rally on Monday, August 3, following the company's latest Bitcoin sales and preferred-stock repurchases, according to AMBCrypto. The decline comes as the company continues its strategic approach of selling Bitcoin to fund preferred dividends while maintaining its 12% STRC dividend rate. The stock's performance reflects ongoing market concerns about the company's substantial Bitcoin holdings and the impact of recent sales on its financial position.
Strategy sold 1,638 Bitcoin last week, marking the third discrete Bitcoin disposal of 2026 and the sixth consecutive week without a purchase, according to an SEC filing dated August 3, 2026. The company sold the Bitcoin at an average price of $64,000 per coin, meaningfully below its overall average acquisition cost of $75,419. The latest sale raised $104.73 million from the sale, with the company allocating $52.4 million from the sale to dividend payments on its STRC perpetual preferred stock, while another $52.3 million went toward repurchasing STRC shares. The Bitcoin was sold between July 27 and August 2, with the company also issuing 3.01 million MSTR shares to raise an additional $290.6 million through common stock sales. With 842,138 BTC remaining 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.
The sale proceeds were split between two key uses: $81.2 million went directly to STRC dividend payments, while the remainder $250 million was used to increase Strategy's U.S. dollar reserve to $4 billion, pushing that figure to $4 billion after the latest stock sales. The company reported a $3.75 billion U.S. dollar reserve as of July 26, covering approximately 2.1 years of expected preferred-stock dividends and interest on outstanding debt. The latest filing shows the company increased its U.S. dollar reserve to approximately $4 billion after the latest stock sales, extending the reserve's ability to support dividend and interest obligations by nearly two months to roughly 2.3 years. The company also repurchased 912,143 STRC shares for $81.2 million in aggregate, which is arithmetically accretive as it retires $100 of future obligations for less than $100 in cash.
The mechanics behind Strategy's Bitcoin monetization reveal significant financial pressure from its complex institutional treasury structure. Quarterly preferred dividend costs have surged from $49.1 million a year ago to $400.7 million, leaving the firm with no viable alternative to regular cash generation. To address this challenge, 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 firm's Q2 results further illustrated the financial pressure, with an $8.22 billion net loss driven largely by unrealized Bitcoin impairments. Despite STRC trading significantly below its $100 par value at approximately $89.40, Strategy is maintaining the 12% dividend on its high-yielding preferred stock rather than implementing the customary 50-basis-point increase.
Despite the stock struggling below $100, analysts led by Barclays and Cantor Fitzgerald expect the stock to surpass $180 and potentially hit $240. The stock has been consolidating below its 2024 price range of $100-$180, with reclaiming that range increasing recovery odds toward the upper bounds and the 200-day moving average at $160. If that bullish scenario plays out, the stock could post an extra 100% rally or 2x move from its current level. However, the six weeks without a Bitcoin purchase represents a clean break from Strategy's traditional identity as a relentless BTC accumulator since early 2020. The company remains one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin globally despite the reductions, with 842,138 BTC still on its balance sheet, though the disposals to date represent only a small fraction of total holdings. 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.
