Strategy posts record STRC buyback spend as shares near $100

Michael Saylor's bitcoin-focused firm Strategy advised shareholders that its STRC repurchases would “taper” as the shares rose toward $100. Yet rather than scaling back, the company last week deployed a record cash sum on buybacks within 0.4% of the $100 par value.

STRC has dropped to $71.25 this year, but Strategy did not execute any buybacks during that week. The company also skipped repurchases when the price was in the $80s and low $90s.

Eventually, after STRC recovered 98.6% of the distance to its $100 target, and despite its own guidance that it would “taper [repurchases] as STRC approaches a trading price of $100 per share,” Strategy pumped more money into STRC than at any previous point.

In detail, the firm reported spending $193.1 million last week at an average $99.60 per share, and in the same SEC filing increased its STRC buyback authorization from $2 billion to $3 billion.

The latest repurchases were financed from a shrinking pool of what Strategy calls “USD Cash,” a category distinct from its overall cash holdings.

In short, every cash reserve at Strategy is shrinking, and to refill them the company primarily relies on issuing additional MSTR shares, thereby diluting common stockholders.

More precisely, it occasionally sells small quantities of BTC and earns modest revenue from software.

In contrast to STRC, the number of MSTR shares has only increased throughout this year. The majority of the cash raised comes from diluting MSTR holders.

Strategy forecasted it would taper, then did the opposite

Strategy's July guidance stated clearly that it would cut its share buybacks as STRC moved toward the $100 par value.

Chief Executive Phong Le said the plan was to buy “more at deeper discounts and less as the STRC trading price approaches $100 per share.”

Weekly SEC filings, however, show an accelerating, rather than diminishing, pace of buybacks.

Strategy purchased roughly $25 million worth of STRC in the week of July 20, paying an average of $86.53 per share. By the week ending October 18, that figure had multiplied 7.7 times, with shares costing $13 more on average.

The biggest two weeks for STRC buybacks both occurred in October, when the stock was trading close to its yearly peak.

In the week ending October 11, Strategy spent $192.4 million at $99.58 per share, and then surpassed that by deploying $193.1 million at $99.60 per share the following week.

Derin Olenik, a critic of Strategy, commented, “Yet another $193.1 million spent on buybacks near $100 (largest week to date), accounting for 19.5% of total volume.”

Our objective is for $STRC to trade at $99-$100 over time. pic.twitter.com/Am8uyOFD3H

— Strategy (@Strategy) October 19, 2026

From July onward, Strategy has spent $1.84 billion in cash on STRC buybacks. The vast majority of that cash came from MSTR common shareholders, who suffered dilution as a result, along with minor bitcoin sales.

Owing to those shareholders, the firm cancelled 18.9 million shares worth $1.89 billion at par value.

The next weekly filing on STRC repurchases is due Monday, October 26. Two days after that, shareholders will convene to vote on whether to pay STRC and other dividend stocks on a daily basis.

Strategy is set to release its third-quarter earnings on October 29.