Key Takeaways
- Strategy has bought 175,000 BTC in 2026 while selling just 7,000, a 25-to-1 ratio, Phong Le says.
- Strategy’s USD reserve hit a record $4.65 billion in August 2026 after growing over 5X in ten weeks.
- Traders now watch whether Strategy’s mNAV recovers as buying resumes.
A Pivot After Four Rounds of Selling
Strategy CEO Phong Le told Fox Business the company will get back to buying more bitcoin throughout the rest of 2026, pushing back against the idea that a recent run of sales marks a retreat from its accumulation strategy.
Le pointed to the math, stating that Strategy has purchased roughly 175,000 BTC since the start of the year while selling only about 7,000 BTC, a buying pace he said runs about 25 times higher than its selling.
That selling has still drawn scrutiny because it breaks with Strategy’s long-standing “never sell” posture under chairman Michael Saylor. The company has offloaded bitcoin on four separate occasions since May, most recently between Aug. 3 and Aug. 9, when it sold 1,690 BTC at an average price of $64,262 for roughly $108.6 million.
Strategy now holds 840,447 BTC, acquired for a total cost near $63.36 billion at an average purchase price of $75,385 per coin, meaning the latest sales were executed below the company’s own cost basis.
Why the Market Is Watching Closely
Strategy’s stock has historically traded at a premium to the bitcoin it holds, a gap tracked through its mNAV, or multiple of net asset value, which compares the company’s market capitalization to the value of its bitcoin treasury. That premium peaked near 3.4x in November 2024. By Aug. 3, Strategy’s basic mNAV had fallen to roughly 0.68x, meaning the market was pricing the company below the value of its own bitcoin holdings.
Le’s comments posture the sales not as a loss of conviction but as short-term balance-sheet management where proceeds have gone toward preferred stock dividends, buybacks of its STRC preferred shares, and building up a U.S. dollar reserve (rather than being spent outside the bitcoin strategy entirely).
The sales also mark a shift in tone from Saylor himself, who built Strategy’s reputation on a “never sell” ethos. Pressed on the reversal, Saylor said he never actually promised the company itself would never sell, recasting the phrase as personal advice for individual holders rather than a corporate pledge.
The reframing followed a rough second quarter with Strategy posting an $8.6 billion net loss for Q2 2026, driven almost entirely by an $8.3 billion non-cash mark-to-market loss on its bitcoin holdings as BTC fell toward $58,700 by quarter’s end.
Rebuilding the Cash Position
The clearest evidence of that balance-sheet work is the dollar reserve itself. Strategy’s USD reserve climbed to an all-time high of $4.65 billion, up from $871 million in late May, more than fivefold growth in about ten weeks. The buildup has been funded through a mix of equity issuance and bitcoin sales; the most recent round alone raised $653.1 million by selling MSTR shares through its at-the-market program, on top of the $108.6 million freed up from the 1,690 BTC sale.
Strategy isn’t the only bitcoin treasury company recalibrating this year, as bitcoin miner MARA also sold 23,093 BTC for about $1.6 billion in the first half of 2026, citing a shift toward more flexible treasury management rather than pure accumulation (a sign the sector-wide “buy and never sell” playbook is giving way to more active balance-sheet strategies even among bitcoin’s largest institutional holders).
Looking ahead, Le’s comments signal the company intends to return to net accumulation once its current capital-management push winds down. The mNAV discount adds a second variable since a sustained trade below 1x could pressure Strategy to keep prioritizing buybacks and reserve-building over new bitcoin purchases, since repurchasing undervalued MSTR shares can be more accretive to shareholders than adding bitcoin at a premium.
