Michael Saylor’s Strategy disclosed Monday that it acquired 17,994 Bitcoin for approximately $1.28 billion last week, paying an average of $70,946 per coin — well below both the company’s overall cost basis of $75,985 and the roughly $67,000 level at which Bitcoin traded for most of the week.
The purchase, confirmed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, brings Strategy’s total holdings to 738,731 BTC acquired for a cumulative $56 billion.
It is the largest single acquisition by Strategy since January, when the firm bought 22,305 BTC for $2.13 billion at an average price of $95,284. More notable than the size, though, is the price. This marks one of the first times Strategy has executed a major purchase while Bitcoin traded beneath the company’s average acquisition cost — a situation the firm largely avoided during the 2022–2023 drawdown, when it completed just seven smaller buys totalling 28,560 BTC.
Saylor announced the big Bitcoin buy via X
The shift in behaviour is deliberate. According to data from SaylorTracker, Strategy has completed five acquisitions since Feb. 9, buying a total of 25,229 BTC during the current below-cost-basis window. The buying has nudged the company’s average cost down marginally, from $76,052 to $75,985, a decline that reflects the mathematical reality of averaging into a position already exceeding 700,000 coins.
The purchase arrives at a precarious moment for both Bitcoin and for Strategy itself. Bitcoin peaked near $126,000 in October 2025 before declining roughly 47% into early 2026, spending much of February and March oscillating between $63,000 and $72,000. MSTR shares have tracked that decline and then some. The stock fell more than 70% from its November 2024 high of $543, trading around $125 in late February. Strategy reported a $12.4 billion net loss for the fourth quarter of 2025, driven almost entirely by unrealised digital asset losses under the new FASB fair-value accounting rules that require Bitcoin holdings to be marked to market each quarter.
Economist Peter Schiff, one of Strategy’s most persistent critics, intensified his warnings as the stock slid. “$MSTR will likely deliver even worse returns in 2026,” Schiff posted on X in response to one of Saylor’s updates, calling the company’s preferred stock instruments “junk” and its financing model a potential “death spiral.” Analyst Ted Pillows pointed to the widening gap between Strategy’s market capitalisation — roughly $46 billion — and the value of its Bitcoin holdings at around $59 billion, noting the stock was trading at a 20-to-25% discount to its underlying assets. That is a dramatic reversal from the days when investors paid a premium exceeding 2x net asset value.
That vanishing premium is the crux of the risk. Strategy’s business model depends on a reflexive loop: rising Bitcoin prices lift MSTR’s market capitalisation, which allows the company to sell stock at elevated valuations to raise capital, which it then deploys to buy more Bitcoin. When the stock trades at or below net asset value, the engine stalls. As Brave New Coin reported in its year-end analysis, Strategy’s mNAV ratio — which measures enterprise value relative to Bitcoin holdings — fell to between 0.78 and 1.06 by late December 2025, after having previously traded above 2.0. MSTR shares ended 2025 down approximately 47%, even as the company spent a record $22.46 billion acquiring roughly 225,000 BTC during the year.
The financing machine has not yet broken, however. Strategy raised over $21 billion in 2025 through a diversified mix of common equity, preferred stock, and convertible debt, making significant progress on its ambitious “42/42 Plan” to raise $84 billion through 2027. The company maintains more than $10 billion in remaining capacity under its at-the-market stock programme, and multiple preferred stock series provide billions more in potential funding. A $2.25 billion cash reserve, established to cover dividend and interest obligations, currently covers approximately 21 months of payments — a cushion designed to insulate the firm from having to sell Bitcoin in a downturn.
Saylor, who stepped aside as CEO in favour of Phong Le but remains executive chairman and the company’s public face, has shown no sign of wavering. His thesis remains unchanged from when Strategy first bought Bitcoin in August 2020 at $11,653 per coin: that Bitcoin is a superior store of value that will appreciate against every fiat currency over any meaningful time horizon. The fact that his company’s cost basis now sits just above the current spot price does not appear to concern him.
Indeed, the willingness to buy aggressively below cost basis may represent a strategic evolution. During previous periods when Bitcoin traded beneath Strategy’s average acquisition price, the firm bought cautiously. This time, it has leaned in. As Brave New Coin noted when Strategy bought 855 BTC at $87,974 in early February — the first purchase below cost basis since late 2023 — the move signalled long-term conviction rather than momentum chasing. Polymarket bettors still lean toward Strategy reaching 800,000 BTC by year-end, implying continued institutional accumulation pressure.
For now, Strategy holds approximately 3.5% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist. Whether that concentration represents visionary conviction or systemic fragility depends entirely on what happens next with the asset underpinning it. The company has $8.2 billion in convertible notes, $7.5 billion in preferred stock, and annual obligations of roughly $779 million in interest and dividends — all serviced by a software business generating just $460 million a year in revenue. The rest of the equation is Bitcoin.
Saylor is betting everything on one outcome. The market, with increasing nervousness, is still letting him.