What happened: Strategy (MSTR) shares climbed more than 7% in premarket trading Monday after the bitcoin-focused company disclosed that it purchased additional bitcoin and bought back preferred stock last week.
The announcement helped lift Strategy back into positive territory for the year, with the stock up roughly 1% since January after several difficult months for the bitcoin holding company.
What drove the move: Strategy purchased 950 bitcoin and repurchased about 1.77 million shares of its STRC preferred stock last week, according to an 8-K filing released Monday.
The company also spent $57.4 million on preferred-stock dividends and outstanding interest payments. Following those transactions, Strategy said its USD and cash reserves totaled $1.05 billion and $5.04 billion, respectively.
The filing came as crypto-related stocks rallied and bitcoin rose more than 6%, trading above $85,000 for its highest level since January. The move followed a brief Sunday post on X from Strategy founder Michael Saylor, who wrote, “a little more orange.”
What else to know: Strategy has faced mounting pressure this year as bitcoin and the broader crypto market slipped into a prolonged downturn.
Lower crypto prices strained the company’s financial strategy, forcing it to sell bitcoin and equity holdings to raise cash for debt obligations and preferred-stock dividend payments.
After an initial decline following the failure of a major crypto market bill to advance in the Senate, Saylor and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong urged the industry to move past the setback, arguing that the crypto sector may be better off without the legislation.
