Strategy restarts Bitcoin purchases with $76 million BTC buy

Strategy purchased 950 BTC for $76 million over the past week, according to the company. The purchases had an average price of $79,670 per BTC and brought Strategy's total holdings to 846,000 BTC. News of the purchase emerged on Monday morning as Bitcoin rose more than 6% and moved above $86,000, its highest price since January. Bitcoin was trading at $86,045 at the time of writing. The purchase was Strategy's first BTC buy since August 31. The firm had sold a total of $432 million worth of Bitcoin in five separate sales since May. Those sales were made under Strategy's BTC monetization program, which was introduced to bolster cash reserves and support dividend payments. Strategy chairman Michael Saylor also said the firm repurchased $174 million worth of STRC, its perpetual preferred stock that pays 12.00% annual dividends. STRC is designed to have a par value of about $100 and was trading at $98.91. Strategy describes itself as the first public company to adopt Bitcoin as its sole treasury reserve asset and remains the world's largest corporate BTC holder by a wide margin. The sales followed years of Saylor encouraging investors to never sell their Bitcoin. Saylor now says that position referred to his personal holdings. He said he has never sold his own Bitcoin and that Strategy, unlike his personal wallet, has disclosed since 2020 that it may buy or sell BTC to manage capital. He said the company's shared conviction in Bitcoin remains unchanged.