WS Investor
06 May 2026, 10:00
Strategy Inc. Edges Up 0.37% in Premarket as Bitcoin Treasury Model Continues to Scale
Strategy ticked up 0.37% in premarket trading after reporting first quarter 2026 results that reflected both the promise and the complexity of the company's singular bet on bitcoin. The headline numbers include a $12.54 billion net loss driven almost entirely by unrealized losses on its digital asset holdings, but investors familiar with the company's unconventional accounting have learned to look past GAAP figures and focus instead on bitcoin accumulation metrics, where the story looks considerably more constructive.
As of May 3, 2026, Strategy held 818,334 bitcoins, representing 22% growth in holdings year to date. The company's bitcoin stash carries an original cost basis of $61.81 billion and a market value of $64.14 billion based on a bitcoin price of approximately $78,374 as of May 1, 2026, implying an average acquisition cost of around $75,537 per coin. The company achieved a BTC Yield of 9.4% year to date and a BTC dollar gain of approximately $4.97 billion over the same period.
The reported net loss of $12.54 billion, or $38.25 per diluted share, compares to a net loss of $4.22 billion in Q1 2025. Both figures are dominated by unrealized losses on digital assets, which totaled $14.46 billion in the current quarter versus $5.91 billion a year ago, reflecting bitcoin's price movements during the respective periods. The company's underlying software business generated revenues of $124.3 million, up 11.9% year-over-year, with gross profit of $83.4 million and a gross margin of 67.1%.
Strategy raised $11.68 billion year to date through its various capital markets instruments, including $7.37 billion in the first quarter alone across its at-the-market offering programs. The standout performer has been STRC, the company's preferred equity instrument marketed as a Digital Credit product. STRC has grown to $8.5 billion in assets under just nine months, which the company claims makes it the largest preferred stock by market capitalization in the world. Year to date STRC raised $5.58 billion, a 189% increase, with daily trading volume reaching $375 million and price volatility declining to 3%.
"STRC has scaled to $8.5 billion in just 9 months and is now the largest preferred stock by market cap in the world," said Founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor. "By extracting bitcoin's performance and engineering price stability, we have produced a credit instrument with a 2.53 Sharpe ratio."
Strategy has now made 23 consecutive on-time dividend payments across its preferred equity products, totaling over $693 million in cumulative distributions since launching the instruments in early 2025. The STRC annualized dividend rate currently stands at 11.50%, with monthly payments of $0.96 per share. The company has also proposed doubling STRC's dividend payment frequency to a semi-monthly schedule, which it believes will improve liquidity and price stability further. Preferred dividends are expected to be treated as non-taxable return of capital for the foreseeable future, adding a tax efficiency dimension to the instrument's appeal.
CEO Phong Le pointed to continued institutional adoption of bitcoin as a broader tailwind. "We continue to see traditional finance and major banks including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Citi announcing bitcoin ETFs, trading, custody, and lending services," he said, framing Strategy's position as the dominant corporate bitcoin treasury as increasingly mainstream rather than idiosyncratic.
With over $13.5 billion in preferred equity outstanding and a bitcoin balance sheet that dwarfs any other corporate holder in the world, Strategy's model continues to attract both capital and scrutiny in roughly equal measure. The mild premarket gain suggests investors remain broadly comfortable with the direction of travel, even as the GAAP losses mount alongside each new tranche of bitcoin accumulation.
Strategy ticked up 0.37% in premarket trading after reporting first quarter 2026 results that reflected both the promise and the complexity of the company's singular bet on bitcoin. The headline numbers include a $12.54 billion net loss driven almost entirely by unrealized losses on its digital asset holdings, but investors familiar with the company's unconventional accounting have learned to look past GAAP figures and focus instead on bitcoin accumulation metrics, where the story looks considerably more constructive.
As of May 3, 2026, Strategy held 818,334 bitcoins, representing 22% growth in holdings year to date. The company's bitcoin stash carries an original cost basis of $61.81 billion and a market value of $64.14 billion based on a bitcoin price of approximately $78,374 as of May 1, 2026, implying an average acquisition cost of around $75,537 per coin. The company achieved a BTC Yield of 9.4% year to date and a BTC dollar gain of approximately $4.97 billion over the same period.
The reported net loss of $12.54 billion, or $38.25 per diluted share, compares to a net loss of $4.22 billion in Q1 2025. Both figures are dominated by unrealized losses on digital assets, which totaled $14.46 billion in the current quarter versus $5.91 billion a year ago, reflecting bitcoin's price movements during the respective periods. The company's underlying software business generated revenues of $124.3 million, up 11.9% year-over-year, with gross profit of $83.4 million and a gross margin of 67.1%.
Strategy raised $11.68 billion year to date through its various capital markets instruments, including $7.37 billion in the first quarter alone across its at-the-market offering programs. The standout performer has been STRC, the company's preferred equity instrument marketed as a Digital Credit product. STRC has grown to $8.5 billion in assets under just nine months, which the company claims makes it the largest preferred stock by market capitalization in the world. Year to date STRC raised $5.58 billion, a 189% increase, with daily trading volume reaching $375 million and price volatility declining to 3%.
"STRC has scaled to $8.5 billion in just 9 months and is now the largest preferred stock by market cap in the world," said Founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor. "By extracting bitcoin's performance and engineering price stability, we have produced a credit instrument with a 2.53 Sharpe ratio."
Strategy has now made 23 consecutive on-time dividend payments across its preferred equity products, totaling over $693 million in cumulative distributions since launching the instruments in early 2025. The STRC annualized dividend rate currently stands at 11.50%, with monthly payments of $0.96 per share. The company has also proposed doubling STRC's dividend payment frequency to a semi-monthly schedule, which it believes will improve liquidity and price stability further. Preferred dividends are expected to be treated as non-taxable return of capital for the foreseeable future, adding a tax efficiency dimension to the instrument's appeal.
CEO Phong Le pointed to continued institutional adoption of bitcoin as a broader tailwind. "We continue to see traditional finance and major banks including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Citi announcing bitcoin ETFs, trading, custody, and lending services," he said, framing Strategy's position as the dominant corporate bitcoin treasury as increasingly mainstream rather than idiosyncratic.
With over $13.5 billion in preferred equity outstanding and a bitcoin balance sheet that dwarfs any other corporate holder in the world, Strategy's model continues to attract both capital and scrutiny in roughly equal measure. The mild premarket gain suggests investors remain broadly comfortable with the direction of travel, even as the GAAP losses mount alongside each new tranche of bitcoin accumulation.