Strategy is now one of the most important institutions in crypto, though the company did not begin there.
Formerly called MicroStrategy, the firm co-founded by Michael Saylor first built its name in software. It later became known for an aggressive policy of buying Bitcoin for its corporate reserves, with Saylor emerging as one of the most visible advocates for institutional adoption of the asset.
From software vendor to Strategy
Before Bitcoin appeared on its balance sheet, Strategy was best known for business intelligence software designed to help companies analyze data and make better decisions.
Michael Saylor founded the company in 1989. It went public on Nasdaq in 1998 under the ticker MSTR. Two years later, Saylor and two other senior executives settled a case with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which alleged that the company had "materially overstated revenues and earnings from the sales of software and information services."
After a short-lived spike in 2000, MSTR traded in a relatively tight range for about two decades. The move higher came only at the end of 2020, the same year the company announced its first Bitcoin purchase.
Until early 2025, the business still operated as MicroStrategy. In February that year, it dropped "Micro" and rebranded as Strategy.
How the Bitcoin treasury strategy began
In 2020, Strategy adopted Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset. Michael Saylor said the move was driven by concern that inflation would erode the value of the U.S. dollar, and the company made an initial $250 million Bitcoin purchase as a hedge against economic uncertainty.
Saylor had not always been a Bitcoin supporter. Seven years before the company adopted the asset, he wrote on social media that "#Bitcoin days are numbered. It seems like just a matter of time before it suffers the same fate as online gambling."
His position later reversed completely. Saylor described Strategy’s Bitcoin investment as a reflection of the belief that the asset "is a dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash."
He later said he was committed to "buying the top forever" and set a 21-year target of $13 million per Bitcoin, based on the view that Bitcoin would take a growing share of global capital.
Debt, preferred stock and the accumulation machine
The company’s buying strategy developed into a financing machine. Strategy raised short-term debt through convertible notes, which investors can later exchange for stock, and used the proceeds to acquire Bitcoin.
In December 2024, Saylor compared the model to Manhattan real estate development in comments to CNBC: "every time Manhattan real estate goes up in value, they issue more debt to develop more real estate." Public companies including MARA, Metaplanet and Riot Platforms adopted the same basic playbook.
In October 2024, Strategy announced plans to raise as much as $42 billion. In January 2025, shareholders then approved a 30x increase in its Class A common shares. Days later, the company launched Strike (STRK), the first in a run of preferred stock offerings. Stretch (STRC), Stride (STRD), Strife (STRF) and Stream (STRE) followed, each marketed to investors with different risk appetites.
The model later showed strain. In June 2026, STRC fell below its $100 par value, exposing what analysts described as a "structural crack" in the flywheel. The longer STRC stayed below par, the greater the chance that Strategy would have to choose between issuing new shares and selling Bitcoin to keep paying its dividend. In broad terms, that is what followed. STRC’s slide cut off one of the company’s routes for funding additional Bitcoin purchases.
mNAV and the valuation debate
Strategy’s debt-funded Bitcoin buying drew close scrutiny. In November 2024, Robinhood-backed Sherwood Media laid out what it called the company’s "math problem": MSTR was worth 3x the Bitcoin it held, and a drawdown could create forced liquidation risk.
That premium is tracked through mNAV, the multiple of market value to net asset value. The figure reached 3.89x in November 2024. It later fell below 1 as Bitcoin dropped in 2026, which meant the market valued the company at less than the Bitcoin on its books.
Over the six months to February 2026, MSTR shares fell about 70%. The company also reported a $12.4 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2025.
In July 2026, Strategy changed the framework. The company overhauled its investor metrics and argued that a move away from convertible debt and toward preferred equity required what Saylor called "a new financial language." The central metric became "net Bitcoin per share." Instead of dividing total Bitcoin holdings by total shares, Strategy first subtracts obligations tied to preferred stock and out-of-the-money convertible debt, leaving the amount that is actually available to common shareholders.
mNAV was redefined to fit that approach. Under the revised version, the share price is divided by that net figure. The change had a direct effect: under the old method, the stock traded at a discount; under the new method, the same share price was roughly at parity.
USD Reserve and USD Cash
To reduce the risk of being forced to sell BTC, Strategy created a cash reserve in December 2025 and seeded it with $1.44 billion. The company later added more funds, and in May 2026 used 61% of that buffer to repurchase $1.5 billion in convertible notes.
The reserve later grew again. In August 2026, Strategy created a second pool next to it. The two serve different purposes. The USD Reserve is designated for preferred dividends and interest payments on debt, while the newer USD Cash account has no such restriction.
Strategy describes USD Cash as dollar liquidity for general treasury purposes, intended to let management move quickly on "dislocations in the markets for bitcoin or Strategy’s securities." Permitted uses include buying Bitcoin, paying dividends, repurchasing stock and repaying convertible notes.
A shift away from the old "never sell" line
In May 2026, Strategy revised its long-standing position that it would never sell Bitcoin. On the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call, CEO Phong Le said Strategy would consider sales if they improved Bitcoin-per-share economics or helped manage debt and dividend obligations.
"We will sell Bitcoin when it’s advantageous to the company," Le said. "We’re not going to sit back and just say, ‘We’ll never sell the Bitcoin.’"
Saylor went even further, suggesting that Strategy might sell Bitcoin "to inoculate the market—just to send the message that we did it," before clarifying that the goal was to "never be a net seller."
Days later, the company sold 32 BTC for about $2.5 million, its first sale since 2022.
The BTC monetization program
In June 2026, Strategy formalized the shift with a Digital Credit Capital Framework and a BTC Monetization Program. The plan authorized BTC sales of up to $1.25 billion to strengthen cash reserves, fund payouts on products such as STRC, or repurchase securities.
Chief Financial Officer Andrew Kang said in a statement that the program gave the company flexibility to monetize Bitcoin "when BTC monetization is more advantageous than issuing common equity." Strategy also committed not to issue common shares to buy Bitcoin unless the stock traded at a premium to the value of its holdings.
The company used the program quickly. In early August 2026, Strategy sold 3,588 BTC for about $216 million. On August 3, it sold another 1,638 BTC for $105 million. A week later, it sold 1,690 BTC for close to $109 million. Since May 2026, the company has sold a total of 6,948 BTC for roughly $432.5 million. The proceeds went to preferred dividends and STRC buybacks.
Strategy was not the only public company selling Bitcoin. In March 2026, MARA Holdings sold about 15,000 BTC, roughly 28% of its stack, raising $1.1 billion to repurchase convertible debt as it shifted toward energy and digital infrastructure. Riot Platforms then followed with more than $250 million in BTC sales.
The BTC selling stopped once the share price recovered. In the week through August 16, 2026, Strategy raised $334 million by selling MSTR stock without touching its Bitcoin. The following week, it raised another $2.01 billion. The choice between selling BTC and issuing equity now depends on which source of funding is cheaper at the time.
Where Strategy stood on August 28, 2026
According to SaylorTracker, Strategy held 840,447 BTC as of August 28, 2026. The company accumulated that position through 113 separate purchases at an average price of $75,653. That made it the largest Bitcoin treasury among publicly traded companies, equal to roughly 4% of total Bitcoin supply, with close to zero net leverage.
The position has been volatile. In July 2026, with Bitcoin near $58,000, Strategy was about $13 billion underwater. As recently as August 17, 2026, when Bitcoin was at $63,553, the paper loss was still about $9.9 billion. A five-day rally then pushed Bitcoin above the company’s average cost. By August 28, 2026, the reserve was worth $66.79 billion, about $3.2 billion above cost.
MSTR shares rose about 10% on August 21, 2026 to $120, their highest level in two months.
Strategy has not bought Bitcoin since June 2026 and has gone two straight weeks without selling any. Saylor’s ambition still extends beyond balance-sheet accumulation. In October 2024, he outlined a vision for Strategy as a "Bitcoin bank" with a $1 trillion valuation, built around capital-market instruments tied to Bitcoin.
He also pitched the model to other companies. In December 2024, Saylor told Microsoft’s board that the company could create $5 trillion in value by adopting Bitcoin. Shareholders voted against the proposal.
This story was originally published on January 8, 2025 and was last updated with new details on August 28, 2026.