Strategy (MSTR), one of the biggest corporate holders of Bitcoin, finally caught a break on Monday. After falling for nine straight sessions, the stock turned higher and climbed 12.6% to $92.68, trimming some of its losses for the month. The rebound came right after the company unveiled a fresh framework for managing its capital, one that made clear any future sales of the digital asset would follow a set formula.
Strategy usually kicks off the week by revealing how much Bitcoin it recently bought. This time, though, it told investors that its so-called USD Reserve had grown to $2.55 billion, while shining a light on what it called a "BTC Monetization Program."
Raising cash by selling Bitcoin
Going forward, the company signaled it could pull in as much as $1.25 billion for its cash cushion by selling Bitcoin, giving it extra firepower to handle dividends and debt. Analysts had cautioned earlier that Strategy's cash reserves were running thin.
The firm also said it may buy back common and preferred shares from time to time to take advantage of "market dislocations." On top of that, it would issue new common shares only when the company is valued at a premium to its enterprise value.
A bigger payout on Stretch
In the same announcement, Executive Chairman and co-founder Michael Saylor said the dividend on Stretch (STRC) had been bumped up for the eighth time, putting it on track to pay 12% annually through distributions made twice a month.
STRC itself jumped 12.2% to $83.67. Last week it had slipped as low as $71.25, well under the $100 par value at which it is designed to trade. When the product trades at or above that mark, Strategy issues more of it to buy Bitcoin.
An analyst calls the framework 'robust'
In a note, Mark Palmer, managing director and senior research analyst at Benchmark-StoneX, described Strategy's framework as "robust," while sticking with a "Buy" rating and a $570 price target.
"The upshot is that Strategy is now an active manager of both sides of its capital structure, an approach that we view as a significant positive for its shareholders," Palmer wrote, calling the framework a "direct, point-by-point answer to the concerns investors have been voicing."
Bitcoin and the deep unrealized losses
On Monday, Bitcoin was changing hands near $60,200, up 1.1% over the past day. Last week it had dropped as low as $58,200 as the sell-off around STRC and Strategy's common stock picked up steam.
The framework brought some clarity on when, and by how much, the digital asset could be sold in the future. Even so, the stock was still down nearly 42% from $149.93 over the past month, around the time the company sold 32 Bitcoin for $2.5 million, its first sale since 2022.
The firm's Bitcoin pile, meanwhile, stayed unchanged at 847,363 Bitcoin. Valued at $51 billion, the stash was sitting on roughly $13.1 billion in unrealized losses.
On the prediction market Myriad, traders put a 15% chance on Strategy holding more than 1 million Bitcoin before the end of the year, a slight uptick from 14.5% odds a week earlier.
