Strategy filed with the SEC on March 17 confirming it had acquired 22,337 BTC between March 9 and 15, paying an average of $70,194 per coin. The purchase cost $1.57 billion and was funded through sales of STRC preferred shares. The company’s total treasury now stands at 761,068 BTC, worth approximately $57.6 billion at current prices.

That is roughly 3.6% of all bitcoin that will ever exist.

How the strategy works

Michael Saylor’s core thesis, articulated since 2020, is that bitcoin is the hardest monetary asset ever created and that holding fiat cash on a corporate balance sheet is a slow loss. Strategy converts operating cash flow and proceeds from equity and debt issuances directly into bitcoin, then holds indefinitely.

The mechanics have evolved. In early cycles, the company raised capital through convertible notes. In 2025 and into 2026, it has leaned heavily on preferred share issuances, including STRK and STRC, which offer fixed dividends and are pitched to income investors who want bitcoin exposure via an instrument that behaves more like a bond.

The result is a flywheel: when bitcoin rises, Strategy’s stock price rises (it trades at a premium to its BTC net asset value), which makes it cheaper to raise fresh capital, which funds more BTC purchases, which reinforces the thesis. The model works well in bull markets. It is leveraged in all directions.

Buying into a 44% drawdown

Bitcoin is currently at around $70,700. Its all-time high, set in October 2025, was approximately $126,210. Strategy is buying into a drawdown that has lasted roughly five months and erased nearly half the peak price.

That is not an accident. The company’s position is so large that it cannot tactically time entries with any precision. It also does not try to. The average cost basis on the full 761,068 BTC has not been disclosed in recent filings, but the March purchase at $70,194 is below the current spot price, which suggests Saylor views the current level as attractive.

The macro backdrop explains the pressure. U.S. inflation data for February came in higher than expected, and markets have shifted from pricing in rate cuts to, in some scenarios, pricing in rate increases. Higher rates reduce the appeal of non-yielding assets, and bitcoin, despite its fixed supply narrative, is not immune to liquidity conditions. When money gets expensive, risk assets sell off.

Strategy is, in effect, making a bet that this macro pressure is temporary and that bitcoin will reclaim and exceed its prior highs. If it does, the leverage embedded in Strategy’s capital structure pays off dramatically. If bitcoin stays flat or falls further for an extended period, the preferred share dividends become a cash drain.

What the institutional bid means for the market

Strategy is not the only institution holding bitcoin in size. BlackRock’s IBIT spot ETF holds well over 700,000 BTC on behalf of its investors. Fidelity’s FBTC, Ark’s ARKB, and a dozen other products collectively hold hundreds of thousands more. MicroStrategy’s corporate treasury model has been replicated, at smaller scale, by dozens of other public companies.

This matters for understanding price behaviour. A structurally large and sticky institutional buyer base changes the dynamics of drawdowns. In 2022, when bitcoin fell from $69,000 to $15,500, the marginal seller was largely retail speculators, over-leveraged DeFi protocols, and collapsing centralised lenders. The institutional bid that exists now was not present then.

That does not mean a comparable drawdown is impossible. It means the composition of the market is different, and that a large share of supply is held by entities with long time horizons and a stated policy of not selling.

The concentration risk

Seven hundred sixty-one thousand bitcoin in one corporate treasury is a concentration that merits attention, not because it is illegal or fraudulent, but because it introduces a specific type of tail risk.

If Strategy ever faced a forced liquidation, whether from covenant breaches on its debt, a catastrophic drop in its share price making new issuances impossible, or regulatory pressure, the impact on bitcoin markets would be measurable. The company holds roughly 3.6% of circulating supply. Selling even a fraction of that into a stressed market would be disorderly.

Strategy’s management has been clear that it has no intention of selling. That is a preference, not a mechanism. The 2022 crypto credit crisis produced a number of entities that had, months earlier, stated categorically that they would never sell.

What to watch

Three things will determine whether Strategy’s current purchase looks prescient or premature.

First, the Federal Reserve’s direction. If the March and April inflation prints come in softer, rate hike fears will fade and risk assets including bitcoin should recover. If inflation stays elevated, the macro headwind persists.

Second, bitcoin’s technical structure around $70,000. This level has served as both support and resistance across multiple cycles. A sustained close below it opens the path to the mid-$60,000s, which is where several large holders have significant unrealised losses.

Third, Strategy’s capital markets access. The STRC preferred share issuance is the current funding mechanism. If demand for that product softens, the pace of accumulation slows. If it stays strong, Saylor will keep buying.

The company has made its bet clear and at size. The macro environment is testing it.