MSTR stock gain 4% after buying $1.57B Bitcoin as BTC nears $74K

Michael Saylor’s Strategy (previously known as Microstrategy), the world’s largest publicly traded holder of bitcoin, expanded its cryptocurrency reserves again last week, purchasing more than $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in one of its largest acquisitions on record.

According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, the company bought 22,337 bitcoin for approximately $1.57 billion between March 9 and March 15.

The purchase was made at an average price of $70,194 per coin, bringing Strategy’s total bitcoin holdings to 761,068 BTC.

The company said the combined holdings were acquired at an average purchase price of $75,696 per bitcoin, representing a total cost of roughly $57.6 billion, including fees and expenses.

Bitcoin was trading near $74,000 at the time of writing, up about 3.4% over the past 24 hours.

MSTR stock surged 4.09% to $145.38 on Monday morning.

Strategy pushes bitcoin holdings above 760,000 BTC

The latest acquisition ranks among the five largest bitcoin purchases ever made by the company.

Strategy’s total holdings of 761,068 BTC represent more than 3.5% of bitcoin’s total supply, according to company disclosures.

The holdings are currently valued at roughly $56 billion, although the company still faces about $1.6 billion in unrealized losses at prevailing market prices due to the higher average acquisition cost.

Strategy’s aggressive accumulation strategy has made it the most prominent corporate holder of bitcoin, with its reserves far exceeding those of other publicly traded firms.

Preferred stock sales fund latest bitcoin purchase

The latest bitcoin purchases were largely financed through stock sales.

Strategy sold 11.9 million shares of its STRC series of perpetual preferred stock, raising approximately $1.18 billion, which accounted for roughly 75% of the purchase funding.

The company also sold 2.8 million shares of its Class A common stock (MSTR), generating about $396 million.

The preferred equity instrument, known as Stretch (STRC), has increasingly become a key funding mechanism for Strategy’s bitcoin acquisitions.

The purchase came after the company eased sales rules on March 9, allowing the STRC program to operate more actively.

“This was the first week Strategy could run the STRC ATM in extended hours with a second broker,” Bitcoin Quant founder Rohan Hirani noted in a post on X.

Strategy still has significant issuance capacity available, with $6.3 billion worth of MSTR shares and $1.96 billion worth of STRC shares remaining under its at-the-market programs.

The company’s preferred stock programs are part of its broader “42/42” capital plan, which targets $84 billion in equity offerings and convertible notes through 2027 to fund further bitcoin purchases.

‘Stretch the orange dots’ signals continued accumulation

Strategy’s executive chairman Michael Saylor has continued to hint at upcoming bitcoin purchases through his regular social media posts tracking the company’s holdings.

Ahead of Monday’s announcement, Saylor shared the message “Stretch the orange dots”, referencing the growing role of STRC preferred stock in funding bitcoin acquisitions.

According to estimates from the tracker platform STRC.live, sales of STRC shares generated enough capital to purchase roughly 10,767 BTC during the week, including 4,113 BTC on Thursday alone.

In a recent research note, Benchmark equity analyst Mark Palmer said STRC may be evolving beyond a simple financing tool.

He described it as the “backbone of an ecosystem of yield-backed stablecoin protocols.”

Saylor has also emphasized the growing market activity around the instrument, saying STRC is now the most liquid preferred stock on the market.