How Bitcoin Treasury Companies Buy Back Their Own Preferred Stock
Strategy has bought back 16.97 million shares of its STRC preferred stock for $1,645.2 million since July 20, at an average of about $96.93 against a $100 stated amount. How the programme works, how it is paid for, and the filings, week by week.
Data as of · weekly filings through the period ending October 11, 2026 · Strategy is the only bitcoin treasury company found with repurchases
Illustration: Strategy’s STRC repurchases over 13 reporting periods from July 20 to October 11, 2026, 16.97 million shares for $1,645.2 million.
How Bitcoin Treasury Companies Buy Back Their Own Preferred Stock, data as of 2026-10-13
Shares and aggregate price are as reported in Strategy’s weekly 8-Ks (the October 5–11 figures come from the press release attached to the October 12 8-K). Average price per share = aggregate price ÷ shares, computed from the filings’ totals, which are rounded to $0.1 million, so averages are approximate; only the first row’s $86.52 is stated in a filing.13 Below $100 = $100 minus the average price, as a share of $100. Funded by = the source the filing names; “Not stated” means the weekly filing does not say. Programme room left = purchase price still available under the program at the end of the week (the program was raised from $1.0 billion to $2.0 billion on September 8). The first row is the 10-Q’s July 1–24 purchases, which the July 27 8-K reports for July 20–26. Weeks with no purchases (before July 20) are not shown.
How it works
Basics
What a preferred stock buyback is
$100 stated
Strategy’s STRC (“Stretch”) is a perpetual preferred stock: it has no maturity date, a $100 stated amount per share and a variable dividend, currently 12.00% a year.14 A buyback means the company buys its own preferred shares back from holders, usually on the market, instead of waiting for holders to sell to someone else. This post follows the only such programme found in filings so far: Strategy’s purchases of STRC. A preferred stock that trades below its $100 stated amount can be bought back for less than that amount.
Programme
The authorisations
$2.0B limit
On June 29, 2026 Strategy set up a repurchase program of up to $1.0 billion for its “Digital Credit Securities” (the preferred stocks STRC, STRF, STRD and STRK), saying STRC was expected to be the first priority. Repurchases may be open-market, block, privately negotiated, tender or exchange offers.15 On September 8 the board raised the limit to $2.0 billion, inclusive of purchases already made, with $1.19 billion remaining at September 7.7 A separate $1.0 billion programme covers MSTR common stock; no common-stock purchases appear in the weekly reports.12
Pace
Thirteen reporting periods of STRC purchases
16.97M shares
Strategy’s weekly 8-Ks report STRC purchases in every period from July 20 to October 11, 2026: 16,973,269 shares for $1,645.2 million, or about $96.93 a share against the $100 stated amount. That equals the $2.0 billion limit less the $354.8 million the October 12 filing says remains.12 No repurchases of STRF, STRK, STRD or MSTR appear in the tables. The average price paid rose from $86.52 in the first week13 to about $99.58 in the week to October 11 (computed from the filings’ rounded totals).12
Funding
Where the cash came from
USD Cash $1.44B → $640.5M
The first purchases (288,930 shares for $25.0 million) were funded by selling common stock through the company’s at-the-market programme, which sells new shares gradually on the exchange.13 The June 29 filing says the repurchases “will not be funded from the USD Reserve”, the pool Strategy’s policy limits to paying preferred dividends and interest, but may be funded by bitcoin sales under its BTC Monetization Program.15 Later weekly filings say “USD Cash”: $176.3 million for the week to September 7,7 and in the week of September 21–27, $48.1 million of USD Cash plus $103.5 million from MSTR stock sales.10 USD Cash was $1.44 billion on September 7 and $640.5 million on October 11, while the USD Reserve moved from $5.10 billion to $4.88 billion.712
Shares
What happens to repurchased shares
Retired
Strategy’s STRC terms, as proposed to be amended in the October 28 proxy, say shares that stop being outstanding are “deemed to be retired” and return to the status of authorised but unissued preferred stock, and that open-market repurchases are not limited by the redemption rules.16 After the first repurchase, about 104.6 million STRC shares were outstanding, a $10.46 billion stated amount, at July 24.13
Dividends
What it does to the dividend bill
$1.76B (Jul 24)
Strategy said in its second-quarter report that its expected annual preferred dividends and interest were about $1.76 billion at both June 30 and July 24, with STRC at 12.00%.13 It has not published a newer total; its third-quarter 10-Q is not yet filed. As a derived figure: at 12.00% on a $100 stated amount, the 16,973,269 shares repurchased would have carried about $203.7 million a year in dividends. The company does not state that number.
Redemption
Buying back versus redeeming
Open market
A company can also redeem preferred stock, paying a set price on a set date. Under STRC’s terms Strategy may redeem all or any whole number of shares, as long as at least $250 million of stated amount stays outstanding. Strategy’s STRF, STRK and STRD can be redeemed only as a whole, and only once fewer than 25% of the originally issued shares are outstanding.16 Open-market buying has no such conditions, which is the route being used here.
Others
Other companies
None yet
Strive announced “a repurchase facility of up to $500 million for SATA” in an October 5 filing, but no SATA repurchase is reported; its SATA shares outstanding rose from 12.94 million at September 30 to 14.03 million at October 9.1718 At The Smarter Web Company, shareholders passed a resolution on September 28 authorising market purchases of its MORE preferred shares, with 99.86% of votes cast in favour; no purchase has been announced.19