Strategy Can Now Sell Bitcoin to Buy Back Stock - the Opposite of What It's Been Doing

Dow Jones
Yesterday

Strategy sold more than $1 billion worth of common stock but didn't buy any bitcoin in the past week

Strategy disclosed a program to sell bitcoin "from time to time" to fund its U.S. dollar reserve and share repurchases.

In an apparent about-face, Strategy disclosed on Monday a bitcoin monetization program that could include selling the cryptocurrency to build up its U.S. dollar reserves, as well as fund repurchases of common stock.

Since the company (MSTR) adopted bitcoin as a primary treasury reserve asset six years ago, the company has been selling equity, mostly in the form of common stock, but also preferred stock, to buy bitcoin (BTCUSD). On June 1, Strategy made a symbolic sale of bitcoin - the first sale in four years - which raised the question of whether the company's long-held strategy, touted by Executive Chair Michael Saylor, of buying and holding bitcoin was coming to an end.

On Monday, Strategy said its board of directors has authorized a "BTC Monetization Program" which allows the company to sell bitcoin "from time to time."

Investors appeared to like the idea. Strategy's stock bounced 4.7% in recent morning trading, putting it on track to snap an eight-session losing streak, which would be the longest such streak since December 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The stock had closed Friday at the lowest price since Feb. 26, 2022.

Meanwhile, bitcoin was down 0.7% in recent trading, heading toward a 21-month low.

The company said among the reasons to sell bitcoin would be to fund its U.S. dollar reserves, which it introduced in December, and to fund preferred stock dividends and interest expenses.

The company said it could also sell bitcoin to "additionally fund repurchases of Digital Credit Securities or Class A common stock" under repurchase programs that were just announced.

Strategy said plans to buy back $1 billion worth of Digital Credit Securities, which refers to its preferred stocks, and to repurchase $1 billion of common stock. The company said the programs don't have fixed expiration dates.

During the week to June 28, Strategy raised $1.15 billion through the sale of 12.7 million shares of common stock, it said. The company didn't add to its bitcoin holdings, which stood at 847,363 bitcoin, but it did disclose a boost to its U.S. dollar reserves to $2.55 billion from $1.4 billion the week before.

Separately, Strategy changed its dividend policy for its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock $(STRC)$, and will start evaluating the dividend rate monthly based on factors including stock trading levels, volatility of bitcoin, dollar-reserve coverage and capital-market conditions.

On Monday, the company said it would raise the regular dividend rate per year on the "STRC" stock, with record dates on or after July 1, to 12% from 11.5%.

Strategy's stock has tumbled 43.3% in 2026, while bitcoin has shed 32.4% and the S&P 500 index SPX has gained 8%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 29, 2026 11:07 ET (15:07 GMT)

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