Strategy has put its bitcoin buying on hold for the time being. On Sunday, Michael Saylor announced that the company would not be adding to its bitcoin holdings this week, temporarily suspending its regular purchase program ahead of the release of its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday. Saylor took to X to make the announcement, stating, "No buys this week.
Back to work next week." This marks only the second pause in Strategy's bitcoin purchases this year, with the first occurring during the week of March 23-29. As the largest publicly traded company with a bitcoin treasury and a closely watched proxy for institutional BTC exposure, Strategy currently holds 818,334 BTC, accounting for nearly 3.9% of the total 21 million bitcoin supply. Its most recent purchase added 3,273 BTC to its holdings at an average price of $77,906 per bitcoin.
As of Monday's Asian morning hours, 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, which are expected to show a loss of $18.98 per share, according to some Wall Street analysts. The company is predicted to report first-quarter revenue of approximately $125 million, based on data from six analysts on Yahoo Finance, 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 Yahoo Finance showing an average estimate of 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 also 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's pitch is centered around yield backed by Strategy's balance sheet and bitcoin-heavy capital strategy, but there is a growing concern that it can 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.
However, when sentiment weakens, the same structure becomes more fragile. Saylor has stated that the buying will resume next week, but Tuesday's earnings will be a crucial indicator of how much confidence investors still have in the machinery that makes that possible. Notably, the company raised $82 million through the sale of common stock, according to Monday's 8-K filing, but did not disclose any corresponding bitcoin purchases.