What actually happened?
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) published a filing on November 9 that reveals two parallel operations during the week of November 2 to 8. The first is familiar and repeats week after week: buying bitcoin. The company acquired 1,036 BTC for $81.9 million, an average of $79,012 per bitcoin. It is the second weekly purchase in a row, as reported by Kryptonovinky.cz and Kryptonovinky.sk, citing Decrypt.
The second operation is the one getting less attention, and it was highlighted by CryptoSlate: according to the filing, Strategy spent more than twice the amount it paid for bitcoin on buying back its STRC-series preferred shares that same week. In other words, a company whose identity rests on accumulating bitcoin spent more money that week buying its own securities than on bitcoin itself.
How much bitcoin does Strategy hold now?
After the latest purchase, Strategy holds a total of 850,364 BTC. This total holdings figure is reported consistently by Kryptomagazín.cz as well as Kryptonovinky.cz and Kryptonovinky.sk (the latter two citing Decrypt). According to Kryptomagazín, 850,364 BTC corresponds to more than 4% of bitcoin's maximum supply (the 21 million coin cap, which will not be reached until around 2140).
The total acquisition value of the portfolio and the resulting average price are reported directly by Kryptonovinky.cz: the holdings cost the company $64.16 billion in total, which works out to roughly $75,456 per bitcoin. This average price is a calculation that can be verified ($64.16 billion divided by 850,364 BTC comes out to about $75,456 per coin).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly purchase (November 2 to 8) | 1,036 BTC | Kryptonovinky.cz / .sk, Decrypt |
| Purchase cost | $81.9 million | Kryptonovinky.cz / .sk, Decrypt |
| Average price of weekly purchase | $79,012 / BTC | Kryptonovinky.cz / .sk, Decrypt |
| Total holdings | 850,364 BTC | Kryptomagazín.cz, Kryptonovinky.cz / .sk |
| Total cost of holdings | $64.16 billion | Kryptonovinky.cz |
| Average purchase price of entire portfolio | approx. $75,456 / BTC | Kryptonovinky.cz (calculation) |
Why is the position "underwater"?
Both Kryptonovinky.cz and Kryptonovinky.sk describe Strategy's position as a loss, that is, "underwater." The reason is simple: according to Kryptonovinky.cz, the average acquisition price of the entire portfolio sits at roughly $75,456 per bitcoin, and the most recent purchases were even made at a higher average ($79,012). When the market price of bitcoin trades below this level, the value of the reserves is accounting-wise in the red compared with what the company paid for them.
It is important to distinguish two things. "Underwater" in this context means an unrealized loss on the position relative to the acquisition price. It does not automatically mean the company is selling or has to sell. Whether and when that might happen is not evident from the filing.
What does the STRC buyback mean and why does it matter?
STRC is one of the preferred stock series that Strategy issued as a financing instrument. Preferred shares are a security that sits between debt and ordinary stock: their holders usually have a priority claim on payouts but typically do not vote like ordinary shareholders. A buyback means the company is pulling these securities back off the market.
According to CryptoSlate, the filing also shows that the bitcoin purchases were financed from proceeds from the sale of common stock, while the larger STRC buyback ran in parallel. This is a key detail: Strategy's financing machine works both ways. The company issues and sells one set of securities to buy bitcoin while simultaneously buying back another.
What is still unclear from the filing?
The available sources do not yield the exact dollar amount spent on the STRC buyback. We only know that, according to CryptoSlate, it was more than double the $81.9 million spent on bitcoin, so roughly above $164 million, but the sources do not provide the specific figure or the number of shares bought back.
Likewise, it is not clear from these sources what the motivation behind the larger STRC buyback was that week, nor how this operation will affect the company's capital structure over the longer term. These are things that further filings and quarterly reports would clarify.
What to watch for with this type of story?
This is not investment advice but an observation of a pattern. For bitcoin treasury-type companies (companies that hold bitcoin as their primary reserve asset), three things are worth watching at once: how much bitcoin is being added, at what average price, and how the operation around it is being financed (stock issuance, preferred shares, their buybacks). A week in which a company spends more on its own securities than on the asset that defines it is exactly the kind of detail that gets lost in headlines about record holdings.
charliedesk is noting this position: the portfolio's average acquisition price of around $75,456 per bitcoin is a verifiable anchor point. Whether the position will be in the black or the red on an accounting basis in the future can be checked at any time against the market price.