STRC Nearly Hits $100 After Bitcoin Giant Strategy Breaks Buyback Promise

The Promise

On July 27, with STRC trading in the $80s, Michael Saylor laid out a simple rule and wrote on X:

“We intend to remain a regular, disciplined buyer of STRC below $100. More at deeper discounts, less as STRC nears $100.”

That day’s buyback was 288,930 shares for $25 million at an average price of $86.52 per share.

STRC is Strategy’s variable-rate Series A perpetual “Stretch” preferred stock, a $100-par security that pays a semi-monthly cash dividend and has no maturity date. It is the company’s flagship “digital credit” product, and its price near $100 is the scoreboard Saylor’s team watches most closely.

The Receipts

The rule has been running in reverse, and Strategy’s filings show buybacks growing as STRC climbed toward par:

• Sept. 28 to Sept. 30: 1,033,168 shares for $102.6 million, an average of about $99.31, according to the Oct. 5 filing. No bitcoin was bought.
• Oct. 1 to Oct. 4: 740,634 shares for $73.7 million at about $99.51 per share, alongside 334 BTC for $28.7 million.
• Oct. 5 to Oct. 11: 1,932,145 shares for $192.4 million at about $99.58, against 250 BTC for $21.5 million, as Bitcoin.com News reported Monday.

That adds up to $368.7 million in STRC in two weeks against $50.2 million in bitcoin, roughly 7 to 1. Saylor’s Monday post confirmed the latest week and put Strategy’s stack at 848,250 BTC with one critic calling it “another broken promise.”

Why $100 Is Worth $192 Million

The answer sits in Strategy’s Sept. 30 filing, as the company kept STRC’s dividend at 12% a year and said management will recommend holding that rate “until STRC has demonstrated sustained, healthy trading near $100 per share.” Par is not just a vanity target but the condition written into the dividend policy.

The buybacks also shrink the bill, and retiring 3,705,947 shares that each pay $12 a year removes about $44.5 million in annual dividend obligations. And the buyer is big enough to move the tape. Yahoo Finance’s STRC trading history shows about $649 million changed hands from Oct. 5 to Oct. 9, which puts Strategy’s $192.4 million at roughly 30% of the week’s volume.

It worked, at least on the chart, given that STRC fell as low as $71.25 in June; investor Scott Melker flagged Monday’s five-month high. The last time it closed at $100 was May 14.

The $354.8 Million Clock

The firepower is finite, and Strategy had $620.9 million left in its preferred repurchase program on Sept. 30, $547.2 million on Oct. 4, and $354.8 million by Oct. 11. At last week’s pace, that is less than two weeks’ worth of buying left. Saylor cited $975 million available back in July.

The bitcoin acquistion side tells its own story given that Strategy’s average cost of purchase was $75,444 per coin, while bitcoin sits near $83,300 at press time. The newest 250 coins cost $86,194 each, above where bitcoin trades as of this writing. Saylor still sounded relaxed, posting Monday that “the bears are under control.”

Three Dates That Decide It

• Oct. 15: STRC’s record date for the $0.50 dividend payable Oct. 31, and the day Strategy intends to declare November’s daily dividends if the change passes.
• Oct. 28: A special stockholder meeting votes on daily dividends, which Strategy says are meant to help STRC trade closer to $100.
• The next Monday filing: Whether buybacks shrink now that STRC sits near par, as the July promise said they would.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy has expanded its bitcoin treasury to 848,250 BTC after acquiring another 250 BTC for approximately $21.5 million.…