What Is Strategy (MSTR)? The Bitcoin Treasury Company

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In brief - Formerly software firm MicroStrategy, Strategy has transitioned to a Bitcoin treasury company model after adopting BTC as its primary reserve asset. - Under co-founder and chair Michael Saylor, Strategy has embarked on an aggressive Bitcoin buying spree for its corporate treasury. - In 2026, Strategy pivoted from its “never sell Bitcoin” stance to “never be a net seller.” Today, Strategy is one of the most important institutions in cryptocurrency, but it didn’t start out that way. Originally called MicroStrategy, the company co-founded by Michael Saylor—one of the most influential figures in the world of Bitcoin—first made its mark in software. Now, however, it’s best known for its aggressive strategy of acquiring Bitcoin for its corporate reserves, with Saylor becoming a key figurehead for the institutional adoption of the asset. Here’s everything else you need to know about Strategy and its relationship with Bitcoin. What is Strategy? Before it added Bitcoin to its balance sheet, Strategy was best known for its business intelligence software solutions, which were designed to help businesses more easily analyze data for improved decision making. Founded in 1989 by Michael Saylor, Strategy quickly became successful, going public and trading on the NASDAQ in 1998 as MSTR. But just two years later, Saylor and two other top executives at Strategy had to settle a case with the SEC, which alleged that the company had “materially overstated revenues and earnings from the sales of software and information services.” After a brief spike in its share price in 2000, MSTR traded in a tight range for the next two decades, only beginning to make a major move upwards at the end of 2020—the same year it announced its first Bitcoin purchase. Until early 2025, Saylor’s company operated as MicroStrategy—but dropped the “Micro” in February, opting for a more powerful and positive tone with just Strategy. The rebrand became synonymous with the popular The Social Network film reference in which Mark Zuckerberg is advised to drop “The” from “The Facebook.” Strategy’s Bitcoin treasury reserve In 2020, Strategy made a groundbreaking move: the company adopted Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset. Concerned about the devaluation of the United States dollar and fiat currency due to inflation, Saylor spearheaded the company's first purchase of $250 million in Bitcoin as a hedge against economic uncertainty. “This investment reflects our belief that Bitcoin, as the world’s most widely-adopted cryptocurrency, is a dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash,” he said at the time. The company’s Bitcoin buying strategy has evolved over time and shifted to primarily using the sale of convertible notes to raise funds to buy more Bitcoin. In other words, Strategy utilizes short-term debt raises via convertible notes that allow investors to eventually cash in for Strategy stock. It then uses the funds raised from the sale of the notes to buy Bitcoin. This strategy has ultimately been adopted by other publicly traded companies like MARA, Metaplanet and Riot Platforms. In December 2024, Saylor likened this strategy to the development of Manhattan real estate, telling CNBC that, “Every time Manhattan real estate goes up in value, they issue more debt to develop more real estate.” The firm signaled in October 2024 that it has no plans on slowing down in the future. At that time, Strategy announced plans to raise up to $42 billion in order to add more of the leading cryptocurrency asset to its balance sheet. Seeking more though, the firm passed a vote in January 2025 to implement a 30x increase of its Class A common shares, allowing it to add even more Bitcoin than initially planned. Days later, the company announced the offering of a new stock, Strike (STRK)–as a new way for it to raise money to buy Bitcoin. Selling shares for $80 a piece, the firm aimed to grab another $584 million for Bitcoin purchases to build out its treasury. The firm announced another $2 billion convertible senior notes sale in February 2025. Throughout the year, the firm would launch additional preferred stock offerings to help fund its Bitcoin purchases, granting different types of investors access to different risk-adjusted products like Stretch (STRC), Stride (STRD), Strife (STRF), and Stream (STRE) in addition to Strike. The strategy of raising debt to buy Bitcoin has been adopted by other publicly traded companies like MARA and Riot Platforms. In December, Saylor likened this strategy to the development of Manhattan real estate, telling CNBC that, “Every time Manhattan real estate goes up in value, they issue more debt to develop more real estate.” As Strategy has become ever more closely intertwined with Bitcoin, the company now refers to itself as the “World’s First and Largest Bitcoin Treasury Company” via its investor relations page. Michael Saylor, Bitcoin convert Though Michael Saylor is now one of the loudest voices advocating for Bitcoin, he wasn’t always a Bitcoin bull. Just seven years before his company adopted the crypto as its main reserve asset, Saylor tweeted that “#Bitcoin days are numbered. It seems like just a matter of time before it suffers the same fate as online gambling.” #Bitcoin is a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster, and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy. — Michael Saylor (@saylor) September 18, 2020 Since then, Saylor has done a complete 180°, claiming Bitcoin is the best long-term asset to hold while committing to “buying the top forever,” referring to consistently purchasing the asset at its peak prices—which Strategy continues to do. In Saylor’s view, that means he might be buying Bitcoin at $13 million, the price target he’s established for the asset over the next 21 years as he expects it to take up a larger percentage of total global capital. The case against Strategy’s Bitcoin reserve Strategy’s persistent Bitcoin acquisitions via the sale of debt has faced scrutiny by analysts and media in the space. In November 2024, Robinhood-backed Sherwood Media outlined the “math problem,” with MSTR being worth 3x the amount of BTC that it holds and the potential of forced liquidations in a drawdown. This premium, known as the firm’s mNAV or its multiple to its net asset value, has historically traded at a strong premium for Strategy. However, as Bitcoin fell in 2026, Strategy’s mNAV—which had reached as high as 3.89x in November 2024—dropped below 1, meaning the company’s market cap is now valued below the value of its Bitcoin holdings. The falling mNAV corresponded with around a 70% drop in the MSTR share price over the six-month period from August 2025 to February 2026, with the company reporting a loss of $12.4 billion in Q4 2025. Skeptics have often noted that if the MSTR share price falls enough, Strategy could be forced to sell Bitcoin to repay billions in convertible notes, “effectively reversing its ‘perpetual motion machine’...which would further decrease Bitcoin’s price,” according to Sherwood Media. But as shares fell, alongside BTC in February 2026, Saylor called concerns about the firm’s ability to pay its debts and dividends “unfounded,” noting that his firm would just “refinance the debt” should the price of BTC fall far enough. To help avoid situations where the firm may be forced into selling BTC, it established a cash reserve in December 2025, kickstarting it with $1.44 billion in funds. It later added to that pile, ultimately securing more than 2.5 years worth of debt and dividends as of February 2026, according to Saylor—who claims that the company can cover its $6 billion debt if BTC falls as low as $8,000. From "never sell" to "never be a net seller" In May 2026 Strategy revised its long-held “never sell your Bitcoin” philosophy, with executives signaling that offloading some of its Bitcoin holdings wasn’t off the table. During the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call, CEO Phong Le said the firm would consider selling Bitcoin if doing so improved its “Bitcoin-per-share” position or helped manage debt and dividend obligations. "We will sell Bitcoin when it's advantageous to the company,” Le said. “We're not going to sit back and just say, 'We'll never sell the Bitcoin.'" The comments drew attention because Strategy’s accumulation model has become the blueprint for many corporate Bitcoin treasury firms, with analysts saying any Bitcoin sales would likely matter more as a signal about institutional confidence than the sales themselves. "If Strategy were to offload even a fraction of its Bitcoin holdings, the immediate impact would be the change in perception and weakening sentiments around the conviction of the asset," Mathew Pinnock, COO of Altura, told Decrypt. Saylor later clarified that Strategy’s goal is to “never be a net seller” of Bitcoin, arguing that the company still expects to acquire far more BTC than it might eventually sell to fund dividends or operations. Days after the comments, Strategy resumed buying Bitcoin. Even as Bitcoin price swings contributed to a $12.5 billion quarterly loss in the first quarter of 2026, Strategy continued expanding its Bitcoin reserves and preferred equity offerings of STRC, which it has used to raise billions of dollars for the company. Notably, other companies that followed Strategy's Bitcoin treasury playbook have sold Bitcoin. In March 2026, Bitcoin mining firm MARA Holdings sold 28% of its Bitcoin holdings, around 15,000 BTC, raising around $1.1 billion to repurchase part of its convertible debt. The firm billed it as a way to improve its overall financial footing and finance its pivot from Bitcoin mining into an "energy and digital infrastructure company." A month later, Riot Platforms followed suit, announcing the sale of over $250 million in BTC in the first quarter of the year as part of a "strategic evolution" into data center development. The future of Strategy Strategy has continued its consistent Bitcoin purchases. As of May 2026, it holds nearly 819,000 Bitcoin, worth around $65.4 billion—making it the largest Bitcoin treasury among publicly traded companies. According to data from SaylorTracker, Strategy is once again holding paper profits after posting unrealized losses from February to April 2026, and is up around $5 billion on its purchases lifetime. Saylor’s ambitions for Strategy are even grander than adding major Bitcoin reserves to the company’s balance sheet. In October 2024, he outlined his vision for Strategy to evolve into a “Bitcoin bank” with a trillion-dollar valuation, creating capital market instruments tied to Bitcoin that can be offered to investors. In addition to adding to its own holdings, Saylor has pitched Strategy’s Bitcoin playbook to other major publicly traded companies. In December 2024, he told the Microsoft board they could stand to create $5 trillion in value by adopting Bitcoin. They voted against adding it to their balance sheet. Editor's note: This story was originally published on January 8, 2025, and last updated with new details on May 12, 2026.

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