Strategy's Three September 8-Ks: 950 BTC Bought for $75.7M vs $489.6M of STRC Bought Back, Zero ATM Sales, USD Cash Down $560M - and the '1.17x mNAV Premium' Is an Enterprise-Value Figure; on Market Cap Alone MSTR Trades at 0.88x Its Coins
Strategy filed three Monday 8-Ks in September (Sep 8, Sep 14, Sep 21). Across the three weeks it bought 950 BTC for $75.7 million (average $79,670) and repurchased 5,002,590 shares of its STRC preferred for $489.6 million: $176.3M (1,810,885 sh, Aug 31-Sep 7), $139.3M (1,420,467 sh, Sep 8-13) and $174.0M (1,771,238 sh, Sep 14-20). It sold zero shares under any at-the-market program in all three weeks. Holdings are 846,000 BTC at an aggregate cost of $63.80 billion, average $75,416, so at roughly $86,300 the stack is worth about $73.0 billion, a paper gain near $9.2 billion.
What changed versus August: the Aug 31 8-K (Aug 24-30) showed the old machine briefly running: 4,531,421 MSTR shares sold via ATM for $602.8M net, 4,603 BTC bought for $369.7M at $80,318, plus $151.8M of STRC buybacks. In September the ATM went silent and every dollar came out of the balance sheet instead. USD Cash fell from $1.61B (Aug 30) to $1.44B (Sep 7) to $1.30B (Sep 13) to $1.05B (Sep 20), a $560M drain in three weeks, while the USD Reserve slipped from $5.10B to $5.04B. On Sep 8 the board doubled the digital credit securities repurchase authorization from $1.0B to $2.0B; $875.1M remained after Sep 20, meaning $1.12B has been used since the program began. The $1.0B MSTR common buyback authorization is untouched.
The headlines got two things wrong. First, 'Strategy is buying bitcoin again' (Bloomberg, Fortune, Sep 21) describes one week in which $75.7M went into BTC and $174.0M went into STRC, funded from cash. For the month, STRC buybacks outran bitcoin purchases 6.5 to 1. This is still a preferred-defence programme with a bitcoin garnish, not a return to accumulation. The buybacks are working on their own terms: STRC closed at $97.07 on Sep 17 against $100 par, up from under $75 in late June, with the dividend held at 12% annualized.
Second, the widely quoted 'mNAV at 1.17x, highest since June 22' (mnav.com, CoinGape) is an enterprise-value style multiple that counts the roughly $21.0B senior stack of converts and STRK/STRF/STRD/STRC preferreds ahead of the coins. BitcoinTreasuries shows the same company at 1.13x on an EV basis but 0.88x basic and 0.89x diluted when you simply divide the $64.5B market cap by $73.1B of bitcoin. The Block put enterprise mNAV at 1.1 after the Sep 14 filing. The two framings answer different questions, but the equity-only one explains September's behaviour: when common trades below the value of the coins per share, issuing stock to buy bitcoin is dilutive per BTC, so the ATM stays shut and cash does the work. MSTR closing at $167-168 on Sep 21, its best since May 15, narrows the discount but has not closed it.
What to watch: the Sep 28 8-K for whether the ATM reopens now that MSTR has rallied 16% in a week; whether STRC prints at or above $100, which would end the case for further buybacks; USD Cash, which at $1.05B funds only about six more weeks at September's combined $190M weekly pace before Strategy must either issue or stop; and the basic mNAV crossing back above 1.0x, the true signal that equity-funded accumulation can resume.
Sources (6)
AI Research
Key Takeaway
September's three 8-Ks show Strategy put $489.6M into STRC buybacks and only $75.7M into 950 BTC, all from cash with zero ATM sales, because on a plain market-cap basis MSTR still trades at 0.88x its bitcoin despite the 1.17x enterprise-value headline.
Strategy filed three Monday 8-Ks in September (Sep 8, Sep 14, Sep 21). Across the three weeks it bought 950 BTC for $75.7 million (average $79,670) and repurchased 5,002,590 shares of its STRC preferred for $489.6 million: $176.3M (1,810,885 sh, Aug 31-Sep 7), $139.3M (1,420,467 sh, Sep 8-13) and $174.0M (1,771,238 sh, Sep 14-20). It sold zero shares under any at-the-market program in all three weeks. Holdings are 846,000 BTC at an aggregate cost of $63.80 billion, average $75,416, so at roughly $86,300 the stack is worth about $73.0 billion, a paper gain near $9.2 billion.
What changed versus August: the Aug 31 8-K (Aug 24-30) showed the old machine briefly running: 4,531,421 MSTR shares sold via ATM for $602.8M net, 4,603 BTC bought for $369.7M at $80,318, plus $151.8M of STRC buybacks. In September the ATM went silent and every dollar came out of the balance sheet instead. USD Cash fell from $1.61B (Aug 30) to $1.44B (Sep 7) to $1.30B (Sep 13) to $1.05B (Sep 20), a $560M drain in three weeks, while the USD Reserve slipped from $5.10B to $5.04B. On Sep 8 the board doubled the digital credit securities repurchase authorization from $1.0B to $2.0B; $875.1M remained after Sep 20, meaning $1.12B has been used since the program began. The $1.0B MSTR common buyback authorization is untouched.
The headlines got two things wrong. First, 'Strategy is buying bitcoin again' (Bloomberg, Fortune, Sep 21) describes one week in which $75.7M went into BTC and $174.0M went into STRC, funded from cash. For the month, STRC buybacks outran bitcoin purchases 6.5 to 1. This is still a preferred-defence programme with a bitcoin garnish, not a return to accumulation. The buybacks are working on their own terms: STRC closed at $97.07 on Sep 17 against $100 par, up from under $75 in late June, with the dividend held at 12% annualized.
Second, the widely quoted 'mNAV at 1.17x, highest since June 22' (mnav.com, CoinGape) is an enterprise-value style multiple that counts the roughly $21.0B senior stack of converts and STRK/STRF/STRD/STRC preferreds ahead of the coins. BitcoinTreasuries shows the same company at 1.13x on an EV basis but 0.88x basic and 0.89x diluted when you simply divide the $64.5B market cap by $73.1B of bitcoin. The Block put enterprise mNAV at 1.1 after the Sep 14 filing. The two framings answer different questions, but the equity-only one explains September's behaviour: when common trades below the value of the coins per share, issuing stock to buy bitcoin is dilutive per BTC, so the ATM stays shut and cash does the work. MSTR closing at $167-168 on Sep 21, its best since May 15, narrows the discount but has not closed it.
What to watch: the Sep 28 8-K for whether the ATM reopens now that MSTR has rallied 16% in a week; whether STRC prints at or above $100, which would end the case for further buybacks; USD Cash, which at $1.05B funds only about six more weeks at September's combined $190M weekly pace before Strategy must either issue or stop; and the basic mNAV crossing back above 1.0x, the true signal that equity-funded accumulation can resume.