Strategy Shocks Market: Halts Bitcoin Buys After 3-Month Spree, Secures $4.2B War Chest

Wall Street's crypto darling just hit the brakes—hard.

Strategy, the institutional bitcoin whale that's been vacuuming up BTC like a hedge fund on Red Bull, just paused its buying spree for the first time since April. The reason? A cool $4.2 billion capital raise that'll either fuel its next mega-trade or disappear into management fees.

The pivot no one saw coming

Three months of relentless accumulation. Then—radio silence. The move comes as bitcoin flirts with key resistance levels, leaving traders wondering if Strategy knows something the rest of us don't.

The $4.2 billion question

Is this dry powder for the next dip? Or proof that even crypto's true believers take profits? One thing's certain—when a player this big changes tactics, the market listens. Even if half that capital ends up funding someone's yacht club membership.

Strategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, did not add to its BTC holdings last week, ending a streak of weekly purchases that extended to April 14.

“Some weeks you just need to HODL,” Strategy Chairman and co-founder Michael Saylor posted on Twitter (aka X) on Sunday, hinting at the company’s pause. 

Strategy currently owns a total of 597,325 BTC — worth over $64 billion — bought at an average price of $70,982 per Bitcoin for a total cost of around $42.4 billion. That’s the equivalent of over 2.8% of the flagship crypto’s total supply. 

Strategy Reports Unrealized Profit Of $14 Billion On BTC In Q2

According to a recent 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, Strategy added nearly $7 billion of bitcoin during Q2.

The company reported an unrealized gain of $14.05 billion on its Bitcoin holdings as the price of BTC jumped from around $82,000 to $108,000 during the three months ended June 30. As a result, it also incurred a deferred tax expense of roughly $4.04 billion.

Subsequently, Strategy also announced it has signed a sales agreement allowing it to issue and sell up to $4.2 billion of its 10% Series A Perpetual Stride Preferred Stock (known as STRD), at the price of $0.001 per share under a new at-the-market program.

Like other Strategy offerings, including the $21 billion STRK ATM, the new offering is an equity-raising mechanism designed to allow the company to sell newly issued shares over time to acquire more Bitcoin.

Bitcoin was recently down 0.5% on the day to $108,066, but remains up around 2.4% over the last month, according to CoinGecko.

Treasury Companies Are Following Strategy’s Lead

Strategy’s latest announcement comes as those other companies are doubling down on their BTC treasury plans in a bid to emulate the firm, which began amassing the top crypto under the leadership of Saylor in 2020.

Metaplanet, which bills itself as the Strategy of Japan, announced on Monday that it had added another 2,205 BTC to its balance sheet, bringing its total holdings of the token to 15,555 BTC — over $1.6 billion worth. 

Semler Scientific, TRUMP Media, and GameStop are among other companies that have also recently invested in the world’s oldest cryptocurrency.