Strategy’s Market Cap Soared 80% in 3 Months; The Stock Rose 54%

The Numbers

Strategy posted a chart on X on Monday night with a one-line caption:

Last 3 months for MSTR: +$32B (+80%).

The graphic put the company’s market capitalization at $39.3 billion on June 22 and $70.9 billion on Sept. 21, a gain of $31.6 billion. An hour earlier, CEO Phong Le had offered a metaphor that drew a lot of attention as well:

STRC is a passenger jet. BTC is a fighter jet. MSTR is a rocket ship. Buckle up.

The revelation came as bitcoin’s price ripped to an intraday high of $87,395, its highest level since late January, a move Bitcoin.com News tracked as $90K came back into the conversation. MSTR closed the session at $168.50.

Does the Jet Metaphor Hold up?

Mostly, yes, because measured over the same June 22 to Sept. 21 window, the three assets lined up exactly in Le’s order:

• STRC, Strategy’s variable-rate perpetual preferred stock, went from $88.79 to $98.78, a gain of about 11%.
• Bitcoin’s price went from $64,020 to $86,620 at the daily close, roughly 35%.
• MSTR went from $109.46 to $168.50, about 54%.

Also, market capitalization is share price multiplied by shares outstanding, and Strategy spent the summer issuing shares. Its weekly SEC filings show at-the-market (ATM) sales, where a company sells new stock directly into the open market, of MSTR stock in almost every week from late June through August.

The biggest week, Aug. 17 to Aug. 23, moved 18,261,118 shares for $2.0 billion in net proceeds. The week ending June 28 added 12,669,017 shares for $1.15 billion.

Adding up the filings from June 22 to Aug. 30 gives roughly 61.5 million new Class A shares and about $6.3 billion in net proceeds. That squares with the chart’s own math, i.e. $39.3 billion at $109.46 implies about 359 million shares, while $70.9 billion at $168.50 implies about 421 million.

Simply put, roughly a fifth of the $31.6 billion “gain” was new stock sold to investors, not appreciation on shares that holders already owned.

What the Money Bought

Much of that cash did not go straight into bitcoin, as Strategy sold bitcoin three times this year while building a U.S. dollar reserve, including 1,638 BTC between July 27 and Aug. 2 at an average of $63,957, close to the bottom of the rally that followed. The firm also leaned on buybacks of STRC, the preferred stock Le calls the passenger jet, a choice that sparked debate over funding buybacks with bitcoin sales.

The latest filing showed the same pattern in miniature because between Sept. 14 and Sept. 20, Strategy sold no shares under its ATM program but bought 950 BTC for $75.7 million and spent $174 million repurchasing 1,771,238 STRC shares. Holdings now stand at 846,000 BTC acquired for $63.80 billion, an average of $75,416 per coin, as the company rebuilt its bitcoin hoard. It reported $5.04 billion in its USD Reserve and $1.05 billion in USD Cash.

STRC closed Monday at $98.80, still below its $100 par value, with 1.8 million shares traded and no ATM activity, according to a daily STRC tracker.