Strategy has stopped buying bitcoin again, a week after resuming purchases. It instead redeemed 1,810,885 shares of its STRC preferred stock for $176.3 million and expanded the limit of its digital credit securities repurchase programme to $2 billion from $1 billion.

On Sept. 8, foreign media including blockchain outlet Decrypt reported that Strategy did not buy or sell bitcoin from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7 and did not conduct an at-the-market stock offering. As of Sept. 7, its bitcoin holdings stayed at 845,050 BTC. Strategy bought those holdings for a total of $63.73 billion, and its average purchase price including fees and expenses was $75,412 per bitcoin.

This week's spending focused on redeeming STRC. Strategy redeemed 1,810,885 shares of STRC, a floating-rate perpetual preferred stock, and did not redeem STRF, STRK and STRD preferred shares or its common stock, MSTR. The redemption was funded from a U.S. dollar cash account. The board expanded the limit of the digital credit securities repurchase programme from $1 billion to $2 billion, and $1.19 billion remained as of Sept. 7. A separate $1 billion limit for a repurchase programme for MSTR common stock was kept unchanged.

As of Sept. 7, Strategy holds $5.1 billion in dollar reserves and $1.44 billion in dollar cash. Dollar reserves are used for preferred dividends and debt interest payments, while dollar cash is funds management can deploy, including for bitcoin purchases. The STRC redemption used $176.3 million from dollar cash.

The latest pause came a week after Strategy ended a roughly 10-week gap in bitcoin buying and resumed purchases. It bought 4,603 BTC for about $369.7 million from Aug. 24 to 30, with an average purchase price of $80,318 per bitcoin. It then stopped buying again, halting purchases after a week.

Strategy previously sold bitcoin to strengthen its financial structure. Phong Le (퐁 레), Strategy's chief executive officer, said the four bitcoin sales totalling about $544 million over the summer were, at the time, the "right trade" to meet obligations such as preferred dividends. Phong Le sold about 7,000 BTC at around $60,000 to $65,000 per bitcoin and said it cut net debt from about $7 billion to zero and secured about $7 billion in cash.

Strategy posted a loss of $8.22 billion in its July quarterly results, but Phong Le stressed there was no need to worry about the book loss at the time. He compared Strategy to "JP Morgan of the virtual asset economy" and said that selling some bitcoin while holding more than 840,000 BTC was not important from an overall perspective.

Strategy began buying bitcoin in 2020 to protect shareholder value from inflation and later shifted its business strategy to become a company that continuously buys bitcoin. It now offers shares to investors seeking high exposure to bitcoin while paying returns through digital credit products.

Meanwhile, Strategy shares fell more than 3 percent in morning trade in New York on Sept. 8.

Strategy management is also responding to MSCI's index inclusion rules. Michael Saylor (마이클 세일러), chairman of Strategy's board, and CEO Phong Le asked MSCI to withdraw a rule that could exclude Strategy from global indexes. The two said the rule was "discriminatory". Funds tracking the index hold 3.1 percent of Strategy's common shares. MSCI's public consultation ends in late September and a final decision is due on Oct. 16.