Strategy spent $193.1 million repurchasing STRC preferred shares last week against $22.1 million on 267 bitcoin, and raised its buyback program to $3 billion. Strive added bitcoin while settling $630 million from a new preferred issue. SkyAI has sold all of its Solana and launched a tender priced below the value of its cash.
The companies that turned themselves into crypto treasuries were among the biggest buyers of the past two years. Last week, the largest of them spent most of its money on itself.
Strategy bought 267 bitcoin for $22.1 million between Oct. 12 and Oct. 18, at an average of about $82,900 each, according to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Over the same week, it spent $193.1 million repurchasing 1,938,780 shares of its STRC preferred stock, nearly nine times what it put into bitcoin. Its board also raised the authorization for repurchasing its preferred securities to $3 billion from $2 billion, leaving $1.16 billion available.
Strategy now holds 848,517 bitcoin, bought for a total of $64.02 billion, or about $75,446 each. The week's bitcoin purchases were funded by $22 million of proceeds from selling common stock. The company sold no preferred shares and used $45.5 million of its cash reserve to pay preferred dividends.
Defending the preferred
STRC is a preferred security that has traded below its $100 stated value; last week's repurchases worked out to about $99.60 a share, by this publication's arithmetic. Buying it back below par is accretive to Strategy and supports a funding tool the company has relied on. But it means cash that might have gone into bitcoin is going into the company's own capital structure. So far this quarter, Strategy has spent about $459 million on STRC against about $72 million on 851 bitcoin.
The company still holds substantial cash. Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said Strategy has about $5.3 billion in U.S. dollar assets.
Strive keeps buying
Strive, a smaller bitcoin treasury company, moved the other way. Chief Executive Matt Cole said the company bought 1,223 bitcoin between Oct. 14 and Oct. 16 at an average of about $81,734, bringing its holdings to 36,818. On Tuesday, Strive is due to settle the sale it priced on Oct. 15 of 7 million shares of 15% perpetual preferred stock at $90 each, raising about $630 million before costs. At that price, the effective yield on the new preferred is about 16.7%, an expensive source of money for buying bitcoin.
SkyAI sells all its Solana
At the far end of the spectrum, SkyAI, which had built a treasury of Solana tokens, said it had completed the sale of all of its SOL and held about $223.8 million in cash as of Oct. 16. It launched a tender offer at $3.00 a share for up to 95% of each class of its securities, worth about $201.3 million if fully subscribed. The company said $3.00 is about 0.95 times its net asset value. The offer, which is no longer conditioned on the price of SOL, expires one minute after 11:59 p.m. New York time on Oct. 29.
By early afternoon Monday, Strategy shares were roughly flat from Friday's close, while bitcoin was up about 0.35% over the same span.
Market implications
One reading is that the accumulation phase for crypto treasury companies is ending. Shares trading near or below the value of their holdings push them toward buybacks and, in SkyAI's case, a full sale of its tokens, and that removes a major source of demand for bitcoin and other tokens.
A second reading is that these are tactical moves. Buying back preferred stock below par makes financial sense, Strategy retains billions in cash and could resume large purchases, and Strive is accelerating.
A third reading is that SkyAI is a governance story, with an activist shareholder pressing for change, not a signal for the sector.
What to watch
Strive's preferred settlement on Tuesday; Strategy's next weekly filing; the SkyAI tender result after Oct. 29; Strategy's Oct. 28 special meeting on STRC dividends; and MSCI's Nov. 11 publication of the final list that applies its Oct. 15 decision on treasury companies. A week in which Strategy again spends more on its preferred than on bitcoin would confirm the shift.