Bitcoin treasury firms Strategy and Strive pursued diverging capital strategies last week, highlighting different priorities in how the companies deploy resources.
Strategy pauses Bitcoin buying to accelerate preferred stock buybacks
Strategy ended its five-week Bitcoin purchasing streak between Oct. 19 and Oct. 25, marking its first weekly pause since mid-September. The company raised no fresh capital through its at-the-market equity program during the period, leaving its Bitcoin holdings unchanged at 848,517 BTC, acquired for approximately $64.02 billion.
Instead, Strategy deployed a record $204.9 million to retire 2.07 million shares of its STRC preferred stock, extending a buyback campaign that has spent more than $2 billion since July. Bitcoin analyst Ragnar estimated that Strategy accounted for 28% of STRC trading volume in the week, demonstrating the company's influence on the security's demand.
Strategy's unrestricted cash balance declined significantly to $242.4 million from $1.6 billion, reflecting an 84.8% decline over the reporting week. The company maintains $4.83 billion reserved for preferred dividends and debt interest, and retains $956.8 million in repurchase capacity after expanding its preferred-stock buyback authorization to $3 billion.
Strategy is seeking shareholder approval on Wednesday, Oct. 28, to introduce daily dividend payments for its preferred securities, replacing the existing twice-monthly schedule. The change would allow investors to receive and reinvest income more frequently and could help maintain the security's price near $100 without increasing its current 12% annual dividend rate.
Strive sets record Bitcoin purchase, narrows gap with Metaplanet
Strive took the opposite approach, raising fresh capital through preferred stock offerings while accelerating Bitcoin accumulation. The company acquired a record 6,182 BTC for approximately $511.4 million between Oct. 17 and Oct. 23, bringing its holdings to 43,000 BTC.
The purchase leaves Strive positioned to potentially overtake Japan's Metaplanet as the world's second-largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder. Strive now holds 1,000 BTC less than Metaplanet's 44,000 BTC and 514 coins less than Twenty One Capital's 43,514 BTC.
Strive financed the acquisition through a $630 million offering of 15% Series A Perpetual SATS Preferred Stock completed Oct. 20, selling seven million shares at $90 each. The company also disclosed a new $1 billion at-the-market program on Monday, allowing it to sell additional SATS shares over time to finance Bitcoin acquisitions and other corporate needs.
Despite the record purchase, Strive's cash and cash equivalents increased to $504.4 million as of Oct. 23 from $317.5 million a week earlier. The company also retained 505,000 shares of Strategy's STRC preferred stock, valued at approximately $50.2 million.
