Strategy has put its bitcoin purchases on hold temporarily. On Sunday, Michael Saylor announced that the company would not be adding to its bitcoin holdings this week, pausing its regular purchase program before the release of its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday. Saylor stated, "No purchases this week.
We will resume next week." This pause marks only the second time this year that Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, has halted its weekly bitcoin purchases. The company had previously skipped a purchase during the week of March 23-29. Currently, Strategy holds 138,834 BTC less than its total, with 818,334 BTC, which is approximately 3.9% of the total bitcoin supply of 21 million. The most recent purchase added 3,273 BTC at an average price of $77,906 per bitcoin.
As of Monday morning in Asia, BTC was trading near $80,100, representing a 20% increase over the past month. Although the pause may seem insignificant, it comes ahead of Strategy's first-quarter results on Tuesday, with some Wall Street analysts expecting a loss of $18.98 per share. According to data from six analysts on Yahoo Finance, Strategy is expected to report first-quarter revenue of approximately $125 million, representing a 12.6% increase from $111.1 million in the same quarter last year.
This would mark an improvement from the same quarter last year when sales declined 3.6%, indicating that the underlying software business is still growing, despite the company's identity being closely tied to bitcoin. However, earnings are expected to be lower. According to Yahoo Finance, the average estimate is a loss of $27.33 per share for the March quarter, while Zacks Research data points to an expected loss of $3.41 per share for the upcoming release. Strategy is no longer viewed as a software company with a bitcoin position but rather as a bitcoin financing vehicle that provides business intelligence software.
As a result, Tuesday's report may be judged more on the resilience of Saylor's capital-raising strategy and less on the company's true operating performance. One product that has drawn attention is STRC, a perpetual preferred share designed to trade near $100 while paying a variable monthly dividend, currently around 11.5% annualized.
The product is marketed as a yield backed by Strategy's balance sheet and bitcoin-heavy capital strategy. However, there is a concern that it may start to resemble credit risk rather than stable income if market sentiment shifts. Higher bitcoin prices support Strategy's valuation, enhancing its ability to raise capital and fund more bitcoin purchases. Nevertheless, when sentiment weakens, the same structure becomes more fragile.
Saylor has stated that the company will resume buying bitcoin next week, but Tuesday's earnings report will reveal how much confidence investors still have in the machinery that makes this possible.