Strategy resumed buying after a two week pause, but its latest purchase came from cash while its stock sales remained idle. Meanwhile a review of five Strive filings shows a different pattern: rapid Bitcoin growth alongside a rising common share count and a growing preferred stock obligation. The useful comparison is how much Bitcoin each common share can claim, not the size of a single purchase.

Strategy has resumed Bitcoin purchases with 950 BTC bought for $75.7 million, while Strive has added 1,355 BTC in a substantially overlapping reporting period and continued expanding a preferred stock program that helps finance its treasury.

Strategy’s Sept. 21 Form 8-K says the company bought Bitcoin using existing USD Cash and sold no shares through its at the market programs from Sept. 14 through Sept. 20. Strive’s filing on the same day shows a larger purchase, a higher common share count and 786,194 additional SATA preferred shares outstanding. The two companies bought the same asset at almost the same average price, but the capital moving behind each purchase was different.

Strategy’s Bitcoin purchase did not restart its share sales

Strategy reported that it paid an average of $79,670 per BTC, including expenses. Its total position rose from 845,050 BTC to 846,000 BTC, a gain of 0.112%. The purchase ended two consecutive reporting periods in which Strategy bought no Bitcoin and sold no shares under its ATM programs. crypto.news previously examined the two week pause and the cash being directed toward preferred share repurchases.

Buying resumed. The financing method used for this purchase did not resemble the one that built much of Strategy’s position. In its Aug. 31 filing, the company said proceeds from MSTR share sales financed a 4,603 BTC purchase worth $369.7 million. The latest 950 BTC came from USD Cash already on the balance sheet. A company can repeat purchases funded by new issuance while buyers keep taking its securities. A cash funded purchase instead draws on a finite pool unless the money is replenished.

The cash pool had another claimant. Strategy used $174 million to repurchase 1,771,238 STRC preferred shares during the same week. That was approximately $2.30 spent on STRC for each dollar spent on Bitcoin. Its USD Cash declined from roughly $1.30 billion to $1.05 billion after the two transactions. Its separate USD Reserve fell from roughly $5.10 billion to $5.04 billion after $57.4 million in preferred dividends and debt interest.

STRC spending split detailed has already been reported. It should not be mistaken for proof that Strategy has abandoned accumulation. The company’s filing records one week’s uses of capital. Its Aug. 31 filing shows that it can resume ATM issuance when it chooses and the market permits it. The question posed by the latest period is narrower: how much new Bitcoin did each company put behind its common stock, and what claims came with it?

A bigger Bitcoin purchase does not answer the shareholder question

Strive paid about $79,475 per coin for 1,355 BTC from Sept. 14 through Sept. 18. Its holdings rose from 25,000 to 26,355 BTC, or 5.42%. Strategy’s 950 BTC purchase grew its much larger position by 0.112%. On those two percentages alone, Strive’s treasury expanded about 48 times faster in the latest disclosed period.

The comparison is striking, but a company’s coin count is only the numerator of what common shareholders ultimately hold. New common shares spread the exposure across more owners. Preferred shares can finance purchases without immediate common dilution, but they introduce a claim ahead of common equity. Cash and other assets matter too. Neither a coin count nor a single BTC per share calculation captures the entire balance sheet.

Strive’s same filing puts its effective common shares at 94,968,764 on Sept. 11 and 97,002,649 on Sept. 18. Its BTC position grew 5.42% while that share count grew 2.14%. Divide 25,000 BTC by the first share count and 26,355 BTC by the second: the result rises from about 26,324 to 27,169 satoshis per effective common share, a gain of 3.21%.

That increase is smaller than the 5.42% rise in the treasury because the denominator changed. It is still positive. An argument that the Bitcoin purchase was entirely offset by common share dilution would be contradicted by these particular snapshots.

Strive defines effective common shares as its Class A plus Class B shares. Its filing separately reports assumed fully diluted shares, options, employee awards and traditional warrants. Using assumed fully diluted shares instead produces approximately 25,474 sats per share on Sept. 11 and 26,317 on Sept. 18, an increase of roughly 3.31%. The filing excludes traditional warrants from that fully diluted count. These are transparent exposure ratios, not liquidation values or a substitute for Strive’s own reported performance measures.

Four weeks of filings show the change beneath Strive’s BTC total

A single week can make a young treasury look exceptionally fast. The longer series offers a better test. Strive’s Aug. 31,Sept. 8,Sept. 14 and Sept. 21 filings report both BTC holdings and share counts for consecutive dates. The calculations below divide reported BTC by reported effective common shares and multiply by 100 million to express the result in sats.

Strive added 4,999 BTC between Aug. 21 and Sept. 18. The arithmetic is 26,355 minus 21,356, equal to 4,999 BTC, or 23.4% of its starting position. Its effective common share count rose by 7,319,226, or 8.2%. Dividing the two end point BTC per share figures gives a gain of about 14.1%. The sequence was positive at each reported weekly snapshot, including weeks when the common share count rose substantially.

The company paid for the four disclosed BTC batches at average prices of approximately $79,431, $79,281, $77,954 and $79,475, inclusive of expenses. Multiplying each batch by its reported average gives roughly $393 million in aggregate purchase cost. That total is an estimate because each average is rounded in the filings. It is not a reconciliation of all funding inflows and outflows.

There is a second denominator. SATA preferred shares outstanding rose by 2,913,345 during the same four weeks, from 8,270,815 to 11,184,160, or about 35.2%. These preferred shares are not common shares, so adding them to the common share denominator would be misleading. Their holders nevertheless have contractual rights that rank ahead of common equity. A growing BTC per common share figure therefore answers one question while leaving the cost of financing open.

Preferred shares put the two companies on different sides of a trade

Strategy’s STRC is variable rate perpetual preferred stock with a $100 stated amount. Strive owns 505,000 STRC shares, a position it marked at $49.748 million on Sept. 18. Strategy has been repurchasing its own STRC while Strive’s holdings of the security remained constant across the filings reviewed. The price of Strive’s position changed, but its share count did not.

Strive has meanwhile expanded SATA, its own variable rate preferred security. SATA outstanding rose by 786,194 shares during the latest week even as Strive bought 1,355 BTC. In the week ended Sept. 11, SATA rose by 402,541 shares while effective common shares barely moved. Earlier Strive’s SATA funding arrangements described proceeds from the preferred program as the financing source for its 469 BTC purchase in that period.

The share count changes in the latest filing do not, by themselves, show exactly which day’s issuance paid for which Bitcoin trade. Cash is pooled and transaction timing can differ. Strive ended the Sept. 18 period with $229.6 million in cash and equivalents, up from $204.2 million a week earlier, despite buying more than $107 million in Bitcoin at its reported average price. The combined cash and asset changes show why treating a purchase as an isolated transfer from one security to another would overstate what the filing proves.

Strategy’s own STRC preferred stock repurchases have had a different immediate purpose: reducing outstanding preferred claims. STRC carried a 12% annualized dividend rate for September, while Strive’s SATA carried 13%, according to the companies’ September disclosures described in that coverage. Dividends are subject to the securities’ terms, and a simple rate comparison cannot measure either issuer’s total financing cost. It does show why issuing a preferred share and buying one back are different uses of capital even if both companies are Bitcoin treasuries.

At the $100 stated amount, 2,913,345 additional SATA shares represent approximately $291.3 million in additional stated preferred capital over the four reporting weeks. That is not a claim that Strive raised exactly $291.3 million in cash: offering prices, transaction costs and any other changes must be checked separately. Applying a 13% annual rate to that incremental stated amount yields roughly $37.9 million per year at an unchanged rate and share count. SATA’s rate is variable, so this is an illustrative run rate, not a fixed future bill.

Strategy’s scale changes what a restart can accomplish

Strategy held roughly 32 times Strive’s 26,355 BTC at the latest disclosed dates. Buying 1,355 BTC would add just 0.16% to Strategy’s starting position of 845,050 BTC. For Strive, the same batch represented 5.42% of its 25,000 BTC starting position. A smaller treasury can show faster percentage growth with a purchase far below the largest issuer’s historical deal size.

The reverse is true of capital needs. To expand its 846,000 BTC position by 5%, Strategy would need 42,300 BTC. At the $79,670 average price it paid in the latest week, that would cost roughly $3.37 billion before any change in price or execution costs. Strive’s 5.42% weekly expansion required 1,355 BTC and roughly $107.7 million at its stated average. This comparison fixes prices solely to make scale visible. It does not forecast either company’s next purchase.

Strategy’s ability to raise capital should not be inferred from the last zero issuance week alone. Its Aug. 31 share financed purchase preceded the two week pause. The SEC filing for that earlier period says the company directed $369.7 million of MSTR issuance proceeds into Bitcoin. It has used the mechanism recently; its absence in the latest filing is an observed choice for that period, not proof that the market has permanently closed.

There is a shareholder benefit in the latest cash funded purchase. Because the company reported no ATM sales for the week, the 950 additional BTC did not come with new common shares sold under those programs. The filing, however, does not give a fresh, directly comparable end of week MSTR diluted share count alongside the Bitcoin disclosure. Assigning a precise BTC per MSTR share increase from this filing alone would mix sources and methodologies. For Strategy, the verified measure here is treasury growth of 0.112% without reported ATM issuance that week.

The strongest case for each company is narrower than the headline

Strategy could have sensible reasons to use cash for both Bitcoin and STRC. Retiring preferred stock can reduce future dividend claims, especially when it trades below its $100 stated amount. A large cash reserve gives management options during a difficult market. Strategy’s filing reports approximately $5.04 billion in its USD Reserve after the latest payments and $1.05 billion in USD Cash after its Bitcoin and STRC purchases. Both figures have distinct stated purposes and should not be collapsed into one discretionary balance.

Strive’s own filings support a positive reading of its accumulation. Its BTC per effective common share increased on every weekly snapshot in the series reviewed, despite growth in the common share count. Its latest cash balance rose even as the treasury expanded. The September SATA financing coverage points to another potential advantage: raising preferred capital can reduce the need for simultaneous common stock sales for a given purchase.

But the preferred claim does not disappear because it sits outside the BTC per common share calculation. At Sept. 18, Strive had 11.18 million SATA shares outstanding. Strive’s common shareholders own a residual claim after the preferred rights and other liabilities are accounted for. BTC per share is a useful operating measure of accumulation; it is not a promise that each share could be redeemed for that quantity of BTC.

The companies are not in a controlled experiment. Their share prices, issuance terms, existing holdings, cash assets and preferred obligations differ. The reporting windows overlap substantially but are not identical: Strive reports through Sept. 18 and Strategy through Sept. 20. The 48 times weekly growth ratio measures a defined change in treasury size. It cannot rank the long term value of either company’s common stock.

What the numbers settle and what they leave open

The SEC filings confirm three separate developments. Strategy resumed buying Bitcoin without reporting an ATM sale for the latest week. Strive bought more BTC in its overlapping period and increased both its effective common shares and SATA shares. Across four consecutive weekly snapshots, Strive’s BTC per effective common share rose 14.1% even after the growth in common shares.

The filings do not prove that all Strive purchases were funded exclusively by SATA issuance, that the preferred financing will be profitable, or that Strategy’s financing channel will remain idle. The illustrative SATA dividend calculation does not account for future rate changes or redemptions. The BTC per share series does not subtract cash, operating liabilities or senior claims. It tests a narrower proposition: whether reported BTC accumulation outpaced the growth in reported effective common shares during the selected period. It did.

Nor does the series support saying every Strategy imitator continued buying. It measures Strive, which disclosed purchases in each of the four reporting weeks, against Strategy, which disclosed two inactive weeks and one cash funded purchase. The proposed sector wide claim would require a defined sample of other public treasuries, their dated filings and the same calculation for each. Strive is one counterexample to a uniform pause, not proof of a universal trend.

For the earlier financing loop to be observable again at Strategy, a subsequent filing would need to show fresh securities issuance linked to BTC purchases. For Strive’s current run to persist on these measures, BTC per effective common share would need to keep rising while its preferred obligations remain financeable on the terms disclosed. A week of common issuance that outruns BTC growth would reverse the first measure. A change in SATA’s dividend rate or market price would change the economics of the second.

What to watch in the next filings

Strategy ATM sales. Its weekly Form 8-K reports whether shares were sold and, when applicable, how proceeds were used. New issuance funding BTC would identify a different sort of restart from the latest cash purchase.

Strategy USD Cash and USD Reserve. The Sept. 20 balances were approximately $1.05 billion and $5.04 billion. Subsequent changes will show whether cash purchases and security repurchases continue without replenishment.

Strive BTC per effective common share. Divide BTC held by Class A plus Class B shares at each dated snapshot. The Sept. 18 reference point is approximately 27,169 sats.

SATA shares and dividend rate. Strive reported 11,184,160 SATA shares on Sept. 18. Both the outstanding count and the announced variable rate determine the scale of the preferred claim.

STRC repurchases and Strive’s STRC holding. Strategy bought back 1,771,238 STRC shares in the latest period; Strive still held 505,000. The next filings can show whether those positions keep moving in opposite directions.

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Disclaimer: This article is for information and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Figures reflect regulatory filings and reporting available at the time of writing and change with each disclosure. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security or asset. Always do your own research. Information is accurate as of September 15, 2026.