Strategy makes much smaller $10.7 million bitcoin buy as its total holdings near 500,000 BTC

Bitcoin treasury company Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) acquired an additional 130 BTC for approximately $10.7 million at an average price of $82,981 per bitcoin between March 10 and March 16, according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday — much smaller than many of its prior sets of bitcoin purchases that have run into the billions.

The company now holds 499,226 BTC, worth over $41 billion. Strategy’s total holdings were bought at an average price of $66,360 per bitcoin, a total cost of around $33.1 billion, including fees and expenses, according to the company's co-founder and executive chairman, Michael Saylor. To put that in perspective, Strategy holds more than 2.3% of bitcoin’s total 21 million supply.

The latest acquisitions follow the announcement of Strategy's plan to raise up to $21 billion via its perpetual preferred stock, STRK, on March 10. It sold 123,000 STRK shares last week for approximately $10.7 million. As of March 16, $20.99 billion worth of STRK shares remain available for issuance and sale under the program, Strategy said in the filing. The firm did not sell any shares of its class A common stock, MSTR, under its previous $21 billion equity program last week.

Last month, Strategy acquired an additional 20,356 BTC for approximately $1.99 billion at an average price of $97,514 per bitcoin after the completion of Strategy's latest $2 billion zero-coupon convertible note offering, under another $21 billion debt program.

Saylor was one of the attendees for the White House's inaugural Crypto Summit, which came a day after President Trump's executive order to create a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve on March 6.

The  Strategic Bitcoin Reserve  would be established from the approximate 200,000 BTC ($18 billion) already owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil proceedings, minus those that still need to be returned to victims. However, Trump also directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin, provided they have no incremental costs to American taxpayers.

The executive order also established a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile consisting of cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. However, the government will not acquire additional assets for the stockpile beyond those obtained through forfeiture proceedings.

Bitcoin falls to within 15% of Strategy's average purchase price as MSTR value halves

Strategy’s $76.8 billion market cap trades at a significant premium to its bitcoin net asset value, with some investors airing reservations about the firm's premium to NAV valuation and its equity and debt-funded bitcoin acquisition program in general.

However, that premium has fallen dramatically in recent weeks as bitcoin dropped 29% from an all-time high of above $109,000 on Jan. 20 to below $77,000 on March, while MSTR stock collapsed around 39% during the same period.

MSTR has tumbled nearly 50% from its all-time high of $473.83 set in November to its recent lows as the previously favored proxy bitcoin trade continued to unwind. The latest drop meant bitcoin came to within just 15% of Strategy's average purchase price, causing concerns that the bitcoin treasury company may have to offload some of its holdings if the collapse were to continue or bitcoin enters a prolonged bear market.

However, K33 Head of Research Vetle Lunde recently dismissed concerns regarding Strategy's average entry price as "irrelevant" in light of the company's debt structure. Strategy's convertible note offerings have a duration of around five to six years, and the majority of the capital raised so far was from equity, not debt. "We’re still years away from any scenario where MSTR would be a forced seller, and their average entry price is just noisy engagement material," he said.

Strategy shares closed up 13% at $297.49 on Friday, having gained more than 74% over the past year, according to TradingView. MSTR is currently trading down 1% in pre-market trading on Monday.