Strategy (MicroStrategy) (MSTR) Skips Bitcoin (BTC) Purchases to Fund $204.9 Million STRC Buyback

First Pause Since Mid-September

Strategy funneled last week's treasury cash into its own preferred shares rather than Bitcoin (BTC), spending $204.9 million to buy back 2,068,459 STRC shares while making no cryptocurrency purchases, according to its Monday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The pause is the first since the company resumed weekly Bitcoin buying in mid-September, and the filing shows no sales through the at-the-market offering program either between October 19 and 25. Michael Saylor's firm, the treasury company that turned corporate HODL into a balance-sheet strategy, still holds 848,517 BTC, acquired for a combined $64.02 billion at an average of $75,446 per coin. That cost basis sits well below the current Bitcoin (BTC) price of about $79,972, so the stack carries a paper gain even after the weekend break below $80,000, which closed a fourth straight weekly loss and followed a Wednesday high of $84,777. The filing's acquisition line, which has carried a number every Monday since mid-September, was blank this time, and the company gave no date for when purchases resume.

Cash Drawn Down to $242.4 Million

The buyback was paid entirely from USD Cash, the general-purpose pool that also funds Bitcoin (BTC) purchases, and it leaves that account at $242.4 million, down from $447.3 million a week earlier, a drop of roughly 46%. The separate USD Reserve, earmarked for preferred dividends and interest on the company's debt, held steady at $4.83 billion, so near-term obligations stay covered even with cash running thin. The purchase slowdown built over several weeks: the week ending September 27 carried more than $140 million of acquisitions, the next three weeks each stayed under $30 million, including 250 BTC for $21.5 million and 267 BTC for $22.1 million, and last week delivered zero. The repurchase side moved the opposite way: $192.4 million, then $193.1 million, then this week's $204.9 million, the largest of the run. Since October began, the company has directed about $664 million into STRC buybacks against just $72.3 million spent on 851 BTC. After the latest repurchase, $956.8 million remains under the preferred-stock program, whose ceiling was lifted from $2 billion to $3 billion a week ago, while the separate program for the common stock still has $1 billion available.

MSCI Deadline Overhangs the Stock

The pause lands weeks before an index decision that could force institutional selling of MSTR shares. MSCI finalized a rule on October 15 that classifies “non-operating companies”, meaning balance sheets dominated by a single asset, as ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes from the close of November 30, with the list of affected names due on November 11. Removal would compel index-tracking funds, including the ETF products built on those benchmarks, to shed the shares. Saylor had publicly pressed the index provider to drop what he called a “discriminatory” rule. The market read the week the same way the filing does: MSTR faded 2.2% to $142.80 in Monday premarket trading, and COINOTAG data shows the stock last changing hands at $139.90, down 2.83% over 24 hours, with the daily trend rated a downtrend and the strongest composite support at $132.15, scoring 97 out of 100. STRC itself dipped below $98 during the week before closing above $99 on October 23, close to its $100 par, and the company reports a USD Duration of 3.4 years with a Bitcoin (BTC) Credit figure of 54 basis points, modeled on 10% annual returns, 40% volatility and an $81,200 spot assumption.

Bitcoin Near $80,000

Support now stacks up at $78,131, a level COINOTAG's Bitcoin technical analysis scores 97 out of 100, while the nearest resistance at $81,205 carries 88/100. The spot price of $79,972 trades between the two, down 0.5% over 24 hours in a sideways trend with an RSI of 40.95. Derivatives positioning stays mild: a funding rate of 0.0069% and $15.8 billion of open interest. A daily close above $81,205 would reopen the range; losing $78,131 would put the $75,446 average cost itself in play. For a treasury desk with $242.4 million of cash against a $4.83 billion dividend reserve, that internal figure may matter more than either chart level.