Strategy has decided to take a temporary break from acquiring bitcoin. On Sunday, Michael Saylor announced that the company would not be adding to its bitcoin holdings for the current week, putting its regular purchase program on hold until after the release of its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
Saylor stated, 'No buys this week. Back to work next week.' This pause marks only the second instance this year for Strategy, which has established itself as the largest publicly traded bitcoin treasury company and a closely watched proxy for institutional BTC exposure. The company's last pause occurred during the week of March 23-29.
Currently, Strategy holds 818,334 BTC, equivalent to nearly 3.9% of bitcoin's total supply of 21 million. Its most recent purchase added 3,273 BTC at an average price of $77,906 per bitcoin, with BTC trading near $80,100 in Asian morning hours on Monday, representing a 20% increase over the past month. The temporary halt in purchases may seem insignificant, but it comes ahead of Strategy's first-quarter results on Tuesday, with some Wall Street analysts anticipating a loss of $18.98 per share. According to Yahoo Finance data from six analysts, Strategy is expected to report first-quarter revenue of approximately $125 million, marking a 12.6% increase from $111.1 million in the same quarter last year.
This suggests that the underlying software business is still performing well, despite the company's identity being closely tied to bitcoin. However, earnings are expected to be lower, with an average estimate of a loss of $27.33 per share for the March quarter, according to Yahoo Finance, and a loss of $3.41 per share, according to Zacks Research data.
Strategy is now valued as a bitcoin financing vehicle that provides business intelligence software, rather than a software company with a bitcoin position. As a result, Tuesday's report may be judged more on the sustainability 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 pitched as a yield backed by Strategy's balance sheet and bitcoin-heavy capital strategy. However, there is a concern that it can start to look less like stable income and more like credit risk if market sentiment turns.
Higher bitcoin prices support Strategy's valuation, improving its ability to raise capital and fund more bitcoin purchases. Nevertheless, when sentiment weakens, the same structure becomes more fragile.
Saylor has stated that buying will resume the following week, but Tuesday's earnings will reveal how much confidence investors still have in the machinery that makes this possible. According to Monday's 8-K filing, the company raised $82 million through the sale of common stock, although no corresponding bitcoin purchases were disclosed.