The move halted a series of bitcoin purchases days before earnings, a break that underscores how much the company now revolves around currency markets rather than software.
Chairman Michael Saylor said on Sunday that the company would skip purchases this week and resume next week, marking only the second break this year in what has become a gradual accumulation program.
The timing puts the decision ahead of Tuesday’s report for the first quarter, when analysts expect revenue growth and other losses related to bitcoin accounting and financial costs. Estimates point to revenue of close to $125 million, up from $111.1 million a year ago, with projected loss per share widely varying across forecasts.
The scheme holds approximately 818,334 bitcoins, or close to 3.9% of the total, cementing its position as the largest public bitcoin treasury. Its latest purchase added 3,273 BTC at an average price close to $77,900.
Bitcoin traded near $80,000 in the early hours of Monday, extending a rally that has lifted sentiment in crypto markets.
As a result of this price jump, Strategy stock rose 3% in early market trading. In the last two days, MSTR has risen more than 10%.
The temporary halt in bitcoin buying itself may reflect a general recognition of earlier gains, however it comes as investors focus less on operational performance and more on the accumulation of capital structure.
The company has transitioned from a software company with a bitcoin position into a financial vehicle designed to convert market demand into bitcoin exposure. That model relies on continued access to cash through common stock issuances and preferred shares, including its high-yield STRC instrument.
STRC is Strategy’s new bitcoin driver
STRC, which has targeted a trading level of $100 while providing a volatile return of around 11.5% annually, has received scrutiny from analysts who see an asymmetry in its structure. Owners receive income consistent with the Strategy’s balance sheet, but remain exposed to the downside if stock prices fall or if demand for the stock weakens.
The stock pop also comes on the heels of renewed enthusiasm generated by Saylor’s keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas last week.
Rather than focusing on Bitcoin price targets or additional Bitcoin purchases, Saylor’s pitch focused on STRC – Strategy’s Bitcoin-backed Preferred Stock – and the alarming theory that digital debt is poised to make billions of dollars in the legacy debt market.
“The $300 billion global credit market is a bigger opportunity than the $2 trillion global Bitcoin market, and Strategy has built the first product to bring the two together,” argued Saylor during the keynote.
STRC, which pays a monthly variable dividend of 11.5% on the Nasdaq, has grown to nearly $8.5 billion in market value in less than nine months — larger, Saylor said, than all existing monthly preferred securities combined.
“This is going well,” he told the audience.
BlackRock’s iShares Preferred & Income Securities ETF has already taken an approximately $210 million position in STRC.
Saylor said that STRC has funded acquisitions of nearly 77,000 BTC year to date through 2026, roughly ten times the total revenue of all US Bitcoin ETFs combined over the same period.
Recent buying patterns show how quickly the Strategy can scale. Prior to April’s dividend cycle, the Strategy invested more than $3 billion in bitcoin, with purchases concentrated in several sessions exceeding $400 million each.
