While bitcoin fell around 30 percent from peak to trough last year, many bitcoin‑heavy companies went into defensive mode. Strategy Inc. has done the opposite – and in mid‑January carried out its largest single purchase since the summer of 2025.
A sharp drop from around $126,000 to $87,000 gave several institutional owners of bitcoin an opportunity to slow down, secure gains or mitigate risk. Strategy has instead opted to increase purchases, and between January 5 and 11, the company bought 13,627 bitcoin for about $1.25 billion, at an average price of about $91,500 per bitcoin. Michael Saylor at Strategy has also signalled at X that there could be further purchases to come.
While other bitcoin companies have had to deal with pressure to reduce debt or pause capital raising to protect their balance sheets, Strategy has used the capital structure as a weapon. In practice, the company acts as a leveraged bitcoin vehicle, where the goal is to increase exposure through both debt and equity — even when the market is shaking.
Several competitors have opted for a more traditional financing based on simple loans or cash reserves. Strategy has instead scaled a more complex model, which has allowed it to buy heavier than others through the market drop and consolidate its position as the most aggressive institutional buyer of bitcoin.
The period of “cheap” convertible loans is largely over for Strategy, which is now more broadly using equity and preference shares to fund its purchases. The Company has established several Perpetual Preferred Stock programs with tickers STRD, STRK, STRF and STRC.
In early January, Strategy raised $119 million through its Series A “Stretch” preference share and over $1.13 billion through ongoing in-market share sales (ATM program). This access of capital allows the company to maintain a high pace of purchases even during periods when other market participants have to slow down.
Strategy's original “21/21” plan aimed to build $21 billion in equity and $21 billion in debt around the bitcoin strategy. This ambition has already been dashed. New signals from the company point to a multi-year catch-up target of $84 billion by 2027.
With this scale, large unrealized losses are treated as accounting technicalities more than operational crises. For 2025, Strategy posted an unrealized loss of $5.40 billion, without it changing its main gripe: using its balance sheet to accumulate as much bitcoin as possible over time.
To avoid having to sell bitcoin in weak markets, Strategy has built up a significant cash buffer. The company holds about $2.25 billion in cash, earmarked to cover interest rate and dividend obligations in its capital structure.
The plan is for the buffer to cover an estimated 21 months of such payments. The goal is to be able to stand through a prolonged “crypto winter” without being forced to realize bitcoin holdings to service debt and equity instruments.
By mid-January 2026, Strategy controls over 687,000 bitcoins, representing more than 3 percent of the total bitcoin supply. The company stands out from other bitcoin companies by prioritizing financial flexibility and aggressive use of equity rather than embellishing short-term accounting figures.
Where many institutional players are waiting for clearer market signals, Strategy treats volatility as an opportunity to increase exposure. At the same time, the company has signaled that further purchases may be coming, underscoring its ambition to consolidate its role as one of the most dominant institutional owners of bitcoin.
