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- Strategy used its MSTR ATM program for both Bitcoin accumulation and STRC repurchases.
- Strive says SATA supplied 85% of the capital raised when warrant proceeds are included.
- Bitcoin’s pullback has pushed the latest purchases underwater while leaving BTC above its major moving averages.
Strategy and Strive added Bitcoin again last week, but the purchases reveal more about their financing models than their appetite for BTC.
Strategy is raising common equity while using part of that capital to retire preferred shares. Strive is moving in the opposite direction, making perpetual preferred equity a central source of funding for its Bitcoin treasury.
Together, the transactions show how the corporate Bitcoin trade is evolving beyond a simple race to accumulate coins. The increasingly important question for shareholders is what securities are being created, diluted or retired around those holdings.
Two Bitcoin Purchases, Two Funding Structures
Strategy Is Recycling Common Equity Into Two Assets
Strategy’s September 28 filing shows that Bitcoin was only one destination for capital raised through its MSTR at-the-market program.
Between September 21 and September 27, the company sold 1,469,165 common shares, generating $246.2 million in net proceeds. After financing the BTC acquisition shown above, another $103.5 million of those proceeds went toward repurchasing STRC.
Strategy spent $151.7 million in total to retire 1,534,530 STRC shares, funding the difference with $48.1 million from its existing USD Cash balance.
The transaction effectively moves Strategy in two directions at once. Common equity outstanding increases through the ATM program, while one class of preferred equity is reduced.
That distinction matters for shareholders because the two securities create different claims on the company. Common issuance produces dilution. STRC carries a variable monthly dividend, so retiring shares reduces the preferred capital on which future distributions are calculated.
Strategy also retains substantial room to repeat the process. Its filing showed approximately $18.84 billion of remaining MSTR issuance capacity and $723.5 million under its preferred-stock repurchase authorization at the end of the reporting period.
Strategy Did Not Raid Its Reserve to Buy Bitcoin
The company’s liquidity structure provides another clue about how it intends to manage that capital stack.
Strategy reported $6.02 billion of USD assets as of September 27, split between a $5.02 billion USD Reserve and $1 billion of USD Cash. The two pools serve different purposes.
The reserve is designed primarily to support preferred dividends and interest obligations. During the latest reporting period, $22.1 million was drawn from it for preferred dividends.
The BTC acquisition, by contrast, was funded from newly issued MSTR rather than the reserve. Existing USD Cash was used for the portion of the STRC repurchase not covered by ATM proceeds.
Keeping those funding channels separate allows Strategy to continue buying Bitcoin without automatically consuming the liquidity it has earmarked for servicing securities already sitting above the common stock.
Strive Has Chosen a Different Claim on Its Bitcoin
Strive is putting preferred equity closer to the center of its treasury model.
CEO Matt Cole said another $12.4 million came from warrant exercises and that, after including those proceeds, SATA accounted for 85% of the capital raised.
Strive acquired 1,107 $BTC for $94.5M at an average cost of $85,396 per bitcoin, bringing total holdings to ₿27,462.
Warrant exercises generated another $12.4M. Including those proceeds, 85% of total capital raised came from SATA.$ASST $SATA pic.twitter.com/duihTtFKrm
— Matt Cole (@ColeMacro) September 28, 2026
SATA is Strive’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock. Unlike conventional debt, it has no scheduled principal maturity. But that does not make the financing free.
Strive raised SATA’s annual dividend rate to 13.00% in April. Investors therefore receive a substantial recurring claim on corporate cash flows in exchange for providing the capital that can support further Bitcoin accumulation.
The structure became particularly relevant after Strive acquired Semler Scientific. The company subsequently used preferred-equity financing to retire most of Semler’s inherited convertible notes and repay its Coinbase credit facility.
Strive said that process left its Bitcoin unencumbered, shifting the balance sheet away from secured and maturity-bearing obligations toward perpetual preferred capital.
The trade-off is straightforward: less refinancing and collateral pressure, but a continuing preferred dividend burden.
Bitcoin Has Moved Below the Newest Cost Bases
At the time of writing BTC is trading at $83,030 on September 28, after reaching almost $87,000 earlier in the month. At that level, the latest tranches purchased by both companies were roughly 3% underwater.
The effect is very different at the portfolio level.
Strategy’s aggregate Bitcoin cost basis is approximately $75,437 per BTC. The company’s overall treasury therefore remained above cost despite the loss on its newest tranche.
Strive’s latest addition has greater proportional weight because its treasury is much smaller. The 1,107 BTC purchase expanded its preceding holdings by roughly 4.2%.
Short-term price movement consequently tells investors more about the marginal purchase than the health of either treasury strategy as a whole.
The $80,660 Level Is the First Technical Test
Bitcoin’s retreat has weakened short-term momentum without yet reversing the broader structure visible on the daily chart.
The 20-day simple moving average sits at approximately $80,660, making it the closest moving-average support below the September 28 price.
There is considerably more space below that level. The 50-day SMA stands near $76,466, while the longer-term averages shown on the chart remain around $70,000–$71,000.
BTC is therefore still trading above all four moving averages despite giving back part of its September advance.
A sustained break below the 20-day SMA would put the short-term breakout under more pressure and leave the 50-day average as the next major moving-average reference. Holding above it would preserve the technical separation created during September’s rally.
Shareholders Need to Price the Financing, Not Just the Bitcoin
The latest disclosures make BTC holdings alone an increasingly incomplete way to compare treasury companies.
Strategy is willing to issue common stock while actively managing preferred securities and maintaining a separate liquidity reserve for financial obligations. Strive is trying to keep Bitcoin unencumbered while relying more heavily on perpetual preferred capital.
Neither structure removes the cost of raising money. It relocates it.
For Strategy shareholders, part of that cost can appear through common-stock dilution and preferred distributions. For Strive shareholders, the SATA structure avoids a conventional maturity wall but places a high recurring dividend claim ahead of common equity.
That is the useful comparison as Bitcoin treasury companies become more sophisticated: not simply how much BTC sits on the balance sheet, but how much of its economic value ultimately reaches common shareholders after the capital used to acquire it is paid for.
