In brief
- Strategy made its largest Bitcoin purchase in over 16 months, scooping up $2.54 billion last week.
- One former Strategy bear speculated that traders using leverage piled into Strategy’s flagship preferred share to capture its upcoming dividend.
- On Friday, Strategy’s Michael Saylor proposed semi-monthly dividends for the preferred share to “stabilize price, dampen cyclicality, drive liquidity, and grow demand.”
Strategy reported its largest Bitcoin purchase in over 16 months on Monday, scooping up $2.54 billion worth of BTC last week as traders snapped up its flagship preferred share to receive an upcoming dividend.
The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based firm said that it purchased roughly 34,200 Bitcoin, lifting its stockpile to a total of around 815,000 Bitcoin. With Bitcoin trading close to $75,400, the sum was valued at around $61.4 billion, according to CoinGecko.
The Bitcoin-buying firm announced that it had issued nearly $2.2 billion worth of STRC, Strategy’s dividend-paying preferred share, which currently pays 11.5% in monthly dividends and is designed to trade around the $100 mark.
STRC’s ex-dividend date passed last Wednesday, representing the day on which investors buying the dividend-paying product no longer receive the next scheduled payment. Leading up to that threshold, STRC traded at or above the $100 mark for 10 straight trading days, indicating that the preferred share now valued at $8.5 billion saw consistent demand.
Andy Constan, a former Strategy bear and founder of research firm Damped Spring Advisors, wagered that STRC saw heightened demand from dividend-capture traders, who typically buy stocks immediately before the ex-dividend date and sell shortly after.
“Dudes I know were all in [STRC] leveraged long last night and have never done a div capture trade in their life,” he said in an X post last week.
Before Monday’s opening bell, the company’s stock had fallen 2% to $163, according to Yahoo Finance. On Friday, Strategy’s shares surged nearly 12% to $166, as the Bitcoin-buying firm’s industry-leading stockpile showed a profit on paper for the first time in months.
On Myriad, a prediction market owned by Decrypt parent company Dastan, traders foresaw a 13% chance Strategy would pare its holdings this year. On Feb. 1, when Strategy’s stockpile plunged underwater, traders foresaw a 31% chance of Strategy tapping its stash.
On Sunday, Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor told followers to “Think Even Bigger” in an X post, hinting at the size of the company’s recent purchase. A day before, he flicked at conflict in the Middle East, noting it’s “impossible to blockade Bitcoin.”
Following STRC’s ex-dividend date last week, the company proposed semi-monthly dividends for the preferred share. “These proposed changes are intended to stabilize price, dampen cyclicality, drive liquidity, and grow demand,” Saylor said in an X post.
Strategy’s latest buy represents its largest since November 2024. Days before, the company said that it had sold $3 billion worth of convertible bonds due in 2029, which grant holders the option of exchanging bonds for common shares should they reach $672.40 apiece.