Imagine sitting across from me, coffee in hand, as we talk about the big players in the crypto space. For a while now, Strategy, the company once known as MicroStrategy, has been the undisputed champion of corporate Bitcoin accumulation. They buy Bitcoin, they buy more Bitcoin, and then they buy even more. It has been a relentless march.
- Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, paused its Bitcoin buying spree for the first time in three months. This pause coincided with the release of their second-quarter results. The company reported a substantial unrealized gain on its digital assets.
- Michael Saylor, Strategy’s executive chairman, hinted at the pause with a simple message on social media. Strategy still holds a massive amount of Bitcoin, representing a significant portion of Bitcoin’s total supply.
- The company funds its Bitcoin acquisitions through stock sales, and has a long-term plan to raise billions more for Bitcoin purchases. The recent pause allows the company time to process results and plan its next moves.
But something shifted recently. For the first time in three months, Strategy hit the pause button on its Bitcoin buying spree. Between June 30 and July 6, the company did not add a single Bitcoin to its massive treasury. This news came out in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
This pause coincided with Strategy releasing its second quarter results. The company reported a substantial unrealized gain on its digital assets, a hefty $14.05 billion. Of course, such gains also bring a deferred tax expense, which in this case amounted to $4.04 billion.
Strategy’s executive chairman, Michael Saylor, seemed to hint at this brief halt. He shared an update on the company’s Bitcoin portfolio tracker on Sunday. His message was simple, yet telling: “Some weeks you just need to HODL.”
Strategy Bitcoin Portfolio Tracker Update:
Some weeks you just need to HODL.
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) July 7, 2025
And hold they do. Strategy still holds a staggering 597,325 Bitcoin. That is worth over $65 billion today. They bought all this Bitcoin at an average price of $70,982 per coin, costing them around $42.4 billion in total, including all the fees and expenses.
To put that in perspective, Strategy’s holdings represent more than 2.8% of Bitcoin’s total supply of 21 million coins. This position implies a paper gain of roughly $22.6 billion. Not a bad return, if you ask me, for a company that started out in business intelligence software.
How did they fund these massive buys? Strategy has been using proceeds from various stock sales. They sell their Class A common stock, known as MSTR. They also use perpetual preferred stocks, like STRK, STRF, and STRD.
During the quarter that ended June 30, Strategy collected a net $6.8 billion from these sales. Each preferred stock has its own flavor. STRD offers a fixed 10% non-cumulative annual dividend and is not convertible. STRK is a convertible preferred stock with an 8% non-cumulative annual dividend. STRF is non-convertible and provides a 10% fixed cumulative annual dividend.
These funding programs are part of a much larger vision. Strategy has a “42/42” plan. This plan aims to raise a total of $84 billion through equity offerings and convertible notes by 2027. All of this capital is earmarked for Bitcoin acquisitions.
This “42/42” plan is actually an upsizing of their initial “21/21” plan, which aimed for $42 billion. They simply ran through the equity side of the first plan faster than expected. It shows you the scale of their ambition.
The recent pause is a notable event. The last time Strategy did not buy Bitcoin was between March 31 and April 6. That period also coincided with the release of their first quarter results. Back then, they reported $5.91 billion in unrealized losses on their Bitcoin treasury.
So, a pause can sometimes be a moment to take stock, literally and figuratively. It gives the company time to process results and plan the next moves. Saylor’s tweet about needing to “HODL” certainly captured the mood of many Bitcoin holders.
The Corporate Bitcoin Race Heats Up
Strategy’s buying pace had already been slowing down a bit in recent weeks. They shifted their focus from common stock sales to their perpetual preferred stocks for funding. Before this latest pause, they had acquired 4,980 Bitcoin between June 23 and June 29. That purchase cost about $531.9 million, at an average price of $106,801 per Bitcoin.
But Strategy is no longer alone in this game. The idea of holding Bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset, pioneered by Saylor, has caught on. Data from Bitcoin Treasuries shows that 135 public companies have now adopted some form of Bitcoin treasury.
New players are joining the ranks. We have seen Tether-backed Twenty One, Nakamoto, President Trump’s media company, and GameStop recently making headlines with their Bitcoin acquisitions. Other firms like Semler Scientific and KULR have also jumped in.
One company that is really stepping up its game is Metaplanet, a Japanese investment firm. On Monday, they announced they bought an additional 2,205 Bitcoin for $239 million. This brings their total holdings to 15,555 Bitcoin, placing them fifth globally among corporate holders. It shows the trend is truly global.
Of course, with such a large and public Bitcoin strategy, Strategy faces scrutiny. The company’s market cap, currently around $110 billion, trades at a significant premium compared to its Bitcoin net asset value. Some investors have reservations about this valuation and the sheer number of their Bitcoin acquisition programs.
Last week, analysts at TD Cowen offered a view that Strategy’s equity-to-Bitcoin loop helps justify this premium. On the other hand, Franklin Templeton issued a warning. They pointed to an uncertain outlook for crypto treasury firms, citing what they called “dangerous” negative feedback loop risks.
Adding to the mix, a New York-based law firm, Pomerantz, filed a class action lawsuit against Strategy. The suit alleges that the company made false and misleading statements about its Bitcoin investment strategy. These are the kinds of ripples you see when a company takes such a bold stance in a new asset class.
As for the stock itself, MSTR closed up 0.4% on Friday at $403.99. Bitcoin itself gained 1.1% that week. MSTR was down slightly, 0.6%, in pre-market trading on Monday. But looking at the bigger picture, MSTR is still up 34.6% year-to-date, outperforming Bitcoin’s 16.9% gain over the same period.
It seems even the biggest Bitcoin bulls need a moment to catch their breath sometimes. What will Strategy do next? The market, and all of us, will be watching closely to see if this pause is just a brief interlude before the next big buy, or if it signals a shift in strategy for the Bitcoin giant.
