Strategy's bitcoin holdings are worth less than it paid for them. The company disclosed in a Monday filing that it bought 1,036 BTC between November 2 and November 8 for $81.9 million, an average of $79,012 per coin, taking its stack to 850,364 BTC. The holdings cost $64.16 billion, an average of $75,456 per coin. With bitcoin near $74,650 (as at time of publishing), the stack sat roughly $685 million under water on paper.
MSTR closed at $128.93 on Friday, down 21.6% from $164.55 on October 6, and fell a further 2.3% on Monday. That leaves the stock about 73% below its November 2024 record of $473.83, by Blockhead's arithmetic.
Strategy sold 2,051,348 shares of MSTR common stock for $283.8 million net, according to its filing. It put $81.9 million into bitcoin, $188.3 million into repurchasing 1,887,464 shares of its STRC preferred and $13.6 million into its USD cash balance. Its USD reserve stood at $4.77 billion, and $18.34 billion remained available under its MSTR sale program.
The preferred buyback was more than twice the bitcoin purchase. STRC pays a 12% dividend and is designed to trade near its $100 par value, and it was at $99.98 on Monday. Strategy does not sell new STRC when it trades below $100, so buybacks support the price and cut the dividend bill, but they spend money that would otherwise go to bitcoin.
The week's purchase barely moved the average cost, which rose by only $5 from $75,451, even though the 1,036 coins were bought near $79,000.
MSCI will name the companies affected by its new rule for non-operating companies on November 11, with removals taking effect after trading closes on November 30. Blockhead covered the rule when MSCI finalized it and their May simulation flagged Strategy, Metaplanet and the uranium holder Yellow Cake. JPMorgan analysts estimated that excluding Strategy could trigger about $2.8 billion of outflows from its shares, and that selling would hit the stock, not the company's bitcoin.
Strategy says it reports its bitcoin business as an operating segment, a position Saylor has maintained, according to reporting on the rule . Whether MSCI agrees will be clear on Wednesday.
The week fits a pattern Blockhead has followed. Strategy sold its first bitcoin in four years in June, when bitcoin slid below $70,000 . In July, we reported that its dividend obligations had become a structural driver of bitcoin sales , and in August that a new USD cash pool marked a shift from its bitcoin-first playbook . Blockhead's CPI-week outlook covers the macro backdrop, in Bitcoin Enters CPI Week Bruised .
The list on Wednesday decides whether index funds become forced sellers of MSTR. After that, the question is whether STRC holds near $100, which would let Strategy resume funding bitcoin purchases by selling it, and whether bitcoin recovers above the $75,456 cost basis. A close below it, with the stock already down more than a fifth in a month, would show how much room the company has.
