Strategy Buys $100M in Bitcoin; BTC Per Share Falls

Strategy purchased 1,587 BTC on June 15 at an average price of $63,024, bringing its total holdings to 846,842 BTC, the company reported. That position is more than 4% of Bitcoin’s fixed 21 million supply.

An SEC filing shows Strategy financed the purchase by selling about 1.7 million Class A shares for roughly $209 million. The company allocated about $100 million of the proceeds to the Bitcoin purchase and added roughly $100 million to its dollar reserve, which it said rose to about $1.1 billion.

Strategy’s internal BTC Yield metric, which measures the change in Bitcoin holdings per assumed diluted share, fell from 13.0% on June 1 to 12.8% on June 8 and to 12.5% after the June 15 purchase. Total BTC increased from 843,706 to 846,842 over the same period. Critics point to the decline in BTC Yield as evidence that the transaction reduced Bitcoin ownership for common MSTR holders on a per-share basis.

A frequent critic wrote on social media that the purchase diluted MSTR shareholders and that Bitcoin per share dropped again. Quinn Thompson of Lekker Capital argued that Strategy is selling common shares while the stock trades below its net asset value, estimating common shares trade at about 0.8 times net asset value after accounting for debt and preferred liabilities. Nic Puckrin, chief executive of Coin Bureau, warned that if common stock remains below the value of the company’s Bitcoin holdings, options such as issuing more stock, issuing preferred shares, selling Bitcoin or cutting preferred dividends each carry trade-offs.

Michael Saylor, Strategy’s chairman, framed the transaction using two measures. He differentiates between Bitcoin-per-share before senior claims and common equity Bitcoin exposure (CEBE), which adjusts for debt, preferred stock and cash reserves. Saylor described the divergence as ‘amplification,’ saying long-dated, low-cost liabilities can increase common equity upside if Bitcoin’s return exceeds financing costs, while short-dated or costly obligations can reduce common equity value.

Independent analyst Adam Livingston calculated that the 1,587 BTC purchase plus the $100 million reserve increase added the equivalent of about 3,146 BTC to the common residual, raising common equity Bitcoin exposure from 145,142 satoshis per share to 145,319 satoshis per share. He summarized his view: ‘BTC-only looked dilutive. BTC plus cash was accretive.’ Dylan LeClair, director of Bitcoin strategy at Metaplanet, said that after deducting debt and preferred stock, common equity can still trade at a premium and that issuing common stock can reduce leverage.

The company retains substantial capital-markets capacity. It has $25.75 billion of MSTR shares available for sale under its at-the-market program and has expanded authorization to include up to $21 billion of additional common stock, $21 billion of STRC preferred stock and $2.1 billion of STRK preferred stock, according to filings.

Market participants continue to debate how to measure the effect of equity issuance on common holders. Strategy reported the transaction details in its filing and public statements; analysts and investors remain divided on whether the same transactions are dilutive or accretive when different balance-sheet measures are applied.