Strategy Paid $100M more to Rebuy the Bitcoin it Sold this Summer

Strategy paid roughly $100 million more to rebuy the bitcoin it sold over the summer than it received in the original sales. The company offloaded 6,948 BTC at an average of $62,150 between May and August, then repurchased 5,553 of those same coins at an average of $80,207 this autumn.

For a Strategy shareholder, the bill shows up in two places: a paper loss on the trade, and dilution from the new shares the company issued to fund the first tranche of the rebuy. Strategy's stack now sits at 846,000 BTC, down from 847,363 on June 21, and 1,363 of the coins sold this summer remain missing. Replacing them at current prices would take another $100 million on top of the $445.4 million already spent.

The roundtrip, in numbers

Every coin that came back cost Strategy about $18,000 more than the average sale price. The company sold 6,948 BTC for $345.1 million between May and August, then spent $445.4 million to repurchase 5,553 of those same coins at an average of $80,207 apiece, a 29% mark-up. That is more than $100.2 million in unrealised gains the company gave up by selling low in the summer and buying back at higher prices this autumn.

How the rebuy was funded

The first tranche was paid for in stock. During the week ending August 30, Strategy bought 4,603 coins at $80,318 each for $369.7 million, its first purchase in 10 weeks, funded with newly issued shares that diluted common shareholders. The following week it repurchased another 950 BTC at $79,670 apiece, this time with cash rather than stock dilution.

What Saylor said at the time

On a May 5 analyst call, Michael Saylor said the company would sell BTC "just to inoculate the market" and send a message to news publications. He told Fortune that skeptics and short-sellers did not recognise that "we're just selling a BTC derivative, and we have the option to sell the BTC." Official SEC filings for the sales claimed the proceeds funded dividends, even though the company held plenty of cash to cover those dividends without selling BTC.

Co CEO Phong Le posted on the day of Strategy's fourth sale of the year that "This is the Digital Credit Capital Framework at work." He has since told Bloomberg it was "the right trade at the time to sell BTC" and described the approach as "a two-way strategy" in which "there will be times when it makes sense to sell bitcoin."

What a shareholder actually owns today

Strategy still holds 846,000 BTC, but it held 847,363 as recently as June 21. The 1,363 coin gap is the cleanest measure of the roundtrip's cost. The company has paid $445.4 million to reacquire 5,553 coins and the estimated remaining 1,363 would cost another $100 million at current prices, though the specific spot price used is not stated. The SEC filings underlying the four sales, including form types and accession numbers remain unconfirmed.