Strategy did not buy any Bitcoin in the week to 7 September, one week after ending a two-month drought in BTC purchases, and spent $176.3 million buying back its own preferred shares, the Bitcoin treasury company said in a filing on Tuesday.
The entire amount went to STRC, its perpetual variable-rate preferred stock, covering 1,810,885 shares. Strategy did not repurchase any of its STRF, STRK or STRD preferred shares, nor its MSTR common stock, and funded the buyback from its dollar cash pool.
Its board doubled the authorisation for this spending, raising the digital credit securities repurchase programme from $1 billion to $2 billion. As of 7 September, $1.19 billion of it remained available. A separate $1 billion programme for MSTR shares remains untouched.
Nothing added to the stockpile
The company neither bought nor sold any Bitcoin during the period, nor did it sell shares under its at-the-market offering programme. It holds 845,050 BTC, bought for $63.73 billion at an average cost of $75,412 each, including fees.
With Bitcoin trading around $77,760 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko data, Strategy's stockpile is worth approximately $65.7 billion against the $63.7 billion paid, an unrealised gain of about 3%. Last week's purchase, at $80,318 per coin, is underwater.
Strategy's dollar balances now total $5.10 billion in the USD Reserve, which covers preferred dividends and interest, and $1.44 billion in USD Cash, the pot management can use for Bitcoin or anything else. The $176.3 million in buybacks came from the latter.
The company raised $2 billion from selling MSTR shares in August and set up the USD Cash fund with that amount, then bought $370 million in Bitcoin, its first purchase since June. Last week, it bought nothing.
Meanwhile, Strategy's chairman, Michael Saylor, and chief executive Phong Le asked MSCI last week to withdraw an index rule that would remove Strategy from its global benchmarks, calling it discriminatory. Funds tracking those indices hold 3.1% of Strategy's core shares.
The filing was signed by Thomas C. Chow, Strategy's general counsel. MSCI's consultation closes at the end of September, with a decision due on 16 October.
* Translated and edited with permission from Decrypt.
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