# Strategy's 848,517 Bitcoin Treasury Shapes MSTR Shareholder Exposure By John Kim Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/36251 Published: 2026-10-21T02:39:02.000Z Updated: 2026-10-21T02:39:02.000Z Section: Business > The company paid $64.02 billion for its holdings. Debt, preferred stock and common share issuance also affect the economic position of MSTR holders. Strategy Inc.'s 848,517 Bitcoin (BTC) holdings make its MSTR shares closely tied to the asset, but debt, preferred stock and new share issuance shape common shareholders' exposure. The Nasdaq-listed company's Bitcoin holdings had cost $64.02 billion, including fees and expenses, as of Oct. 18. That works out to an average purchase cost of $75,446 per BTC. The figures describe what Strategy paid, not what the coins are worth now. Owning MSTR also gives a shareholder no right to withdraw Bitcoin from the company's treasury. ### How Strategy Built Its Treasury Strategy was called MicroStrategy when it made its first Bitcoin purchase in August 2020, spending $250 million on 21,454 BTC. Its board designated Bitcoin as the company's main treasury reserve asset the following month. The company began doing business as Strategy in February 2025 and still sells enterprise analytics software. Securities sales have helped finance the treasury. From Oct. 12 through Oct. 18, Strategy sold 140,872 MSTR shares for $22 million in net proceeds. It combined that money with $0.1 million of designated dollar cash for a [267 BTC purchase]() costing $22.1 million. The transaction brought its holdings to the Oct. 18 total. Buying Bitcoin is only one use of the company's capital. During the same Oct. 12-18 period, Strategy spent $193.1 million buying back STRC preferred shares. It also maintains a dollar reserve intended to help cover preferred dividends and interest on debt. Strategy has sold Bitcoin and directed the proceeds toward preferred dividends, its dollar reserve and preferred share repurchases. Across five disclosed periods from May 26 through Aug. 9, it sold 6,948 BTC for about $431.8 million in proceeds. The company later bought more Bitcoin, including the October purchase. Strategy founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said in June, “Strategy remains committed to Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset.” ### What an MSTR Share Represents MSTR is Strategy's Class A common stock. A shareholder owns an interest in the company, which has a Bitcoin treasury, a software business and financial obligations. The shares are not redeemable for a fixed number of coins. Their price can therefore move differently from Bitcoin's price as the share count, financing terms and investor expectations change. Debt holders and preferred shareholders have claims ahead of common shareholders. That order matters when assessing the treasury's value to MSTR holders: the Bitcoin sits within the company, alongside obligations that common shareholders do not get to ignore. The size of the treasury alone does not describe what belongs economically to each common share. New common shares also spread the company's exposure across a larger share count. Strategy's sale of 140,872 MSTR shares in October illustrates the trade-off: it raised cash that helped buy more BTC while increasing the number of shares outstanding. A larger Bitcoin balance does not, by itself, show that the amount attributable to each share increased. Strategy publishes a measure called “BTC Yield” to track changes in Bitcoin per assumed diluted share. Dilution accounts for the potential effect of additional shares. BTC Yield is a measure of that per-share Bitcoin exposure; it is not a measure of shareholder income or the return earned on MSTR stock. ### Costs and Earnings Bitcoin price changes also affect Strategy's financial statements. For the quarter ended June 30, the company recorded an $8.22 billion net loss, including an $8.32 billion unrealized loss on digital assets. Revenue for the quarter was $122.4 million. An unrealized loss reflects a change in reported value without requiring a sale of the asset. Those results and the October transactions show why the purchase cost of Strategy's Bitcoin cannot stand in for either its current value or the value of MSTR shares. The stock reflects a company that can issue securities, repurchase preferred shares, sell Bitcoin and continue operating its software business. Each of those activities can change common shareholders' position even when Bitcoin remains the company's central treasury asset. ## Links in this article - [267 BTC purchase](https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/34831)