Strategy, the company built on the pledge to never sell its bitcoin, has now sold bitcoin in back-to-back weekly SEC filings.
Between July 27 and August 9, 2026, it sold 3,328 BTC for a combined $213.3 million — and every dollar of net proceeds went to preferred-stock dividends and buybacks, not new bitcoin purchases.
The filings do not describe a company in distress. They describe a company running a weekly, mechanical process to defend a different security.
Key Takeaways
- Strategy sold 1,638 BTC ($104.73M) from July 27–Aug 2 and 1,690 BTC ($108.6M) from Aug 3–9, 2026, per its own SEC Form 8-K filings. Net proceeds funded preferred-stock dividends and STRC buybacks — zero went to new bitcoin purchases.
- The $1.0 billion Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program, authorized June 29, 2026, had $785.2 million remaining as of August 9 — about 21% used in six weeks.
- At that burn rate, exhausting the remaining $785.2 million through bitcoin sales alone would take roughly 12,200 more BTC, about 1.5% of the company’s 840,447 BTC treasury.
- Strategy’s June 29 policy explicitly lists bitcoin sales as one of several tools it can use instead of raising the STRC dividend rate — the sales are a designed lever, not an improvised one.
Two weeks, read straight from the filings
Strategy discloses its bitcoin activity and share repurchases in weekly 8-Ks. The two most recent filings, covering July 27–August 9, 2026, line up like this:
| Metric | July 27 – Aug 2 | Aug 3 – Aug 9 |
|---|---|---|
| BTC sold | 1,638 | 1,690 |
| Aggregate sale price | $104.73M | $108.6M |
| Average sale price per BTC | $63,957 | $64,262 |
| Use of proceeds | $52.4M to preferred dividends, $52.3M to STRC buybacks | $108.6M to STRC buybacks |
| STRC shares repurchased | 912,143 ($81.2M) | 1,152,020 ($108.6M) |
| Aggregate BTC holdings after sale | 842,138 | 840,447 |
Source: Strategy Form 8-K filings dated August 3 and August 10, 2026 (SEC EDGAR).
Read across the two weeks, the pattern is not a single emergency sale — it is a recurring line item. The company sold a similar amount of bitcoin at a similar average price twice in a row, and both times the cash left the building as dividends or buybacks, never as new BTC.
Why sell bitcoin to defend a stock trading below $100
STRC is Strategy’s variable-rate preferred stock, listed with a stated value that secondary reporting from CoinDesk and Fortune places at $100 per share; it has been trading below that level for months.
On June 29, 2026, Strategy filed an 8-K revising its STRC dividend policy. The filing states that the company will evaluate the dividend rate monthly based on “STRC trading levels, market yields, credit spreads, the price and volatility of bitcoin, USD Reserve coverage, capital market conditions, and the Company’s overall capital structure.”
It adds explicitly that Strategy “will not necessarily increase the STRC dividend rate solely because STRC trades below its stated amount.”
In the same filing, Strategy listed its alternatives to raising the dividend: “USD Reserve management, BTC monetization, repurchases of Digital Credit Securities or class A common stock, and other capital allocation actions.”
Selling bitcoin to buy back STRC is not a workaround — it is the policy working as designed.
CoinDesk reported that Strategy kept STRC’s annual dividend rate at 12% through the early-August sales, consistent with choosing buybacks over a dividend increase.
That same June 29 filing created the $1.0 billion Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program that both August sales drew from, and named STRC the “initial priority” if repurchases are judged to strengthen the balance sheet.
The math behind the weekly sale
The two filings let us do arithmetic Strategy does not spell out itself.
Program usage: $1.0 billion authorized minus $785.2 million remaining as of August 9 equals $214.8 million used in the roughly six weeks since June 29 — about $36.7 million per week on average.
Time to exhaustion, if the pace holds: $785.2 million ÷ $36.7 million per week ≈ 21 more weeks, or roughly five months, before the current authorization runs out or is renewed.
Bitcoin required, if funded entirely by BTC sales: $785.2 million ÷ $64,262 (the most recent average sale price) ≈ 12,220 more BTC — about 1.5% of the 840,447 BTC Strategy held as of August 9.
These are projections built on the last two weeks’ pace and price, not a forecast Strategy has published. The company could fund more of the buyback through its MSTR common-stock ATM instead of bitcoin, or the board could adjust the STRC dividend rate at its next monthly review and change the calculus entirely.
The number worth watching is not the size of any single week’s sale — it is whether the $1.0 billion authorization gets renewed or expanded when it runs low.
Two Lenses
The balance-sheet defender’s math
From Strategy’s own disclosures, the sales look almost trivial against the treasury: 3,328 BTC sold over two weeks is 0.4% of 840,447 BTC held, and the company told the Motley Fool it expects to remain a net buyer of bitcoin over time.
The USD Reserve — cash set aside specifically to cover preferred dividends and interest — stood at $4.65 billion as of August 9, which is itself evidence the company is not selling bitcoin because it is out of options.
Selling a small, disclosed, price-consistent slice of a $54 billion position to defend a preferred stock trading below its stated value is closer to treasury management than to distress.
The pledge holder’s math
For someone who bought MSTR or STRC specifically because Strategy said it would not sell, the size of any one week’s sale is beside the point.
What changed is that a routine, calendar-driven bitcoin sale now exists as a standing policy tool, written into an 8-K next to “USD Reserve management” and “capital allocation actions” as if it were an ordinary lever.
A treasury that sells on a schedule to prop up a different security is operating under a different promise than “we will not sell” — even if, this month, the amount sold is small enough not to move the price.
What would change our view
We would treat “never sell” as more clearly broken if a future 8-K showed bitcoin sales funding something other than preferred-stock obligations — general operating expenses, for example — or if the pace of sales accelerated well beyond the $36.7 million weekly average calculated here.
We would treat the current pattern as manageable treasury mechanics if the $1.0 billion authorization is allowed to lapse without renewal once exhausted, and if bitcoin purchases resume as the primary use of proceeds, as Strategy told the Motley Fool it expects.
FAQ
Q. Is Strategy still buying bitcoin in August 2026?
A. Not in the two most recent weekly filings — both covered sales, not purchases, with proceeds going to preferred-stock dividends and buybacks. Fortune reported the August 10 sale came seven weeks after Strategy’s last bitcoin purchase. The company told the Motley Fool it still expects to be a net buyer of bitcoin over time.
Q. What is STRC, and why does Strategy care if it trades below $100?
A. STRC is Strategy’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock. Reporting from CoinDesk and Fortune places its stated value at $100 per share; a share trading well below that level raises borrowing-cost pressure and can signal balance-sheet stress to the market, which is part of why Strategy is repurchasing it.
Q. How much of the $1.0 billion buyback program is left?
A. $785.2 million, as of Strategy’s August 10, 2026 8-K, after $214.8 million was used since the program’s June 29, 2026 authorization.
Sources
- Strategy Form 8-K, “BTC Update” and repurchase updates, filed 2026-08-10 — August 3–9 sale figures, STRC repurchase totals, $785.2M remaining authorization, $4.65B USD Reserve
- Strategy Form 8-K, “BTC Update” and repurchase updates, filed 2026-08-03 — July 27–Aug 2 sale figures and use-of-proceeds breakdown
- Strategy Form 8-K, capital framework announcement, filed 2026-06-29 — $1.0B Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program, revised STRC dividend policy, BTC Monetization Program
- CoinDesk, “Strategy (MSTR) news: Saylor sells more bitcoin, buys back more STRC,” 2026-08-03 — 12% dividend rate, STRC’s $100 stated value
- The Motley Fool, “Michael Saylor’s Strategy Is Selling Bitcoin Again,” 2026-08-14 — 840,447 BTC total, forward guidance on remaining a net buyer
- Fortune, “Strategy dumps yet more Bitcoin,” 2026-08-10 — seven-week gap since last bitcoin purchase, USD Reserve growth context
Leave a Reply