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Strategy Buys 535 More Bitcoin, Raises Holdings to 818,869 BTC

Strategy Buys 535 More Bitcoin, Raises Holdings to 818,869 BTC

Strategy resumes Bitcoin buying streak with 535 BTC purchase and lifts its total holdings to 818,869 BTC. Michael Saylor’s corporate Bitcoin machine is still running hot, but the noise around dividends, dilution, and whether the company may eventually need to sell a sliver of BTC to keep the lights on is getting harder to shrug off.

  • 535 BTC bought for roughly $43 million
  • Total holdings: 818,869 BTC as of May 10, 2026
  • Average price paid: about $80,340 per BTC
  • Funding pressure: preferred dividends, equity sales, and balance-sheet strain

Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, said it acquired 535 Bitcoin at an average price of roughly $80,340 per BTC, pushing its total stash to 818,869 BTC. The company has now spent about $61.86 billion on Bitcoin overall, with an average cost basis of around $75,540 per BTC. That is not just a position. It is a full-blown corporate identity shift, with the company effectively behaving like a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury vehicle that happens to have a software business attached.

For Bitcoin holders, that still matters. Strategy remains the loudest proof that a public company can use its balance sheet to accumulate BTC at scale. For skeptics, it also remains a reminder that big treasury bets come with ugly plumbing underneath. The upside is obvious. The obligations are not going away just because the orange logo looks cool on a conference slide.

The latest buy followed Michael Saylor’s May 10 post on X:

“Back to work, BTC.” — Michael Saylor

Anyone who has watched Strategy for more than a minute knows the drill. Saylor drops a short line, Bitcoin traders start sniffing around, and then the company announces another purchase. It is part signal, part performance art, and part corporate capital-markets theater. The man has turned accumulation into a ritual.

The company later confirmed the move with a plain-language update:

“Strategy acquired 535 Bitcoin for about $43 million, paying an average price of roughly $80,340 per BTC.”

Before this latest purchase, Strategy held 818,334 BTC as of May 3. The new addition brought that total to 818,869 BTC as of May 10, 2026. The previous buy on April 27 was much larger — 3,273 BTC for about $255 million — and was funded through MSTR Class A common stock sales. Strategy said it still had $26.47 billion in MSTR shares available under its program, which gives it plenty of room to keep raising capital if it wants to keep turning equity into Bitcoin.

That funding model is the part people need to keep their eyes on, not just the headline number. Strategy reported a BTC Yield of 9.4% year to date in 2026, a metric it uses to show how much Bitcoin exposure it has effectively added relative to its financing structure. Put simply, it is Strategy’s way of saying, “we are increasing BTC per share.” It is not revenue, it is not operating profit, and it is definitely not some magical free-money metric. It is a finance lens on a Bitcoin-heavy balance sheet.

Preferred shares and dividend obligations are where the story gets less sexy and more serious. Preferred shares are a type of stock that usually comes with fixed payments, so they create ongoing cash demands. That means Strategy cannot just stack Bitcoin forever and ignore the bills. It has to keep finding ways to fund purchases and payout obligations without stretching the balance sheet too thin. That is the boring part of corporate finance, but boring is exactly where companies get exposed.

Saylor recently admitted Strategy could sell some Bitcoin to help fund dividends, a comment that raised eyebrows among Bitcoin purists who prefer their treasury companies to be accumulation-only, thank you very much. He argued that even a tiny sale would not derail the bigger picture:

“Even if we were to sell one Bitcoin, we’d be buying 10 to 20 more Bitcoin.” — Michael Saylor

That is the bullish pitch in a nutshell: any small amount sold today would supposedly be more than offset by future purchases. In a perfect bull market, that sounds clever. In real life, the math depends on access to capital, share price stability, and Bitcoin not spending too long in the financial doghouse. If those things wobble, the story gets a lot less elegant.

The concern is not random hand-wringing either. Strategy reported a $12.54 billion Q1 net loss, tied to the lower value of its Bitcoin holdings. That sounds catastrophic, and in accounting terms it is certainly ugly, but it does not mean the company burned through $12.54 billion in cash. It reflects how Bitcoin is marked on the books. Translation: when BTC drops, the financial statements can look brutal even if the company is still very much alive. A balance sheet stuffed with volatile hard money is a powerful weapon, but it also means every drawdown gets front-row billing.

This is why Strategy has become the poster child for the corporate Bitcoin treasury strategy. The upside is simple enough for even the most sleep-deprived CFO to understand: if Bitcoin keeps appreciating over the long term, the company’s holdings could become a monster asset. The downside is just as obvious once you strip away the hype: equity dilution, preferred payouts, debt-like obligations, and an asset that can swing violently in either direction. Bitcoin can be superior money. It is still a wildly unstable unit of account when you are trying to keep a public company’s cash machinery running.

For Bitcoin itself, Strategy is both a legitimizer and a potential cautionary tale. On one hand, a publicly traded company piling billions into BTC helps normalize the idea that Bitcoin belongs on corporate balance sheets. That is a big deal. On the other hand, if the model ever gets stress-tested hard enough, it could show how much of this “corporate adoption” narrative depends on constant financing and optimistic market conditions. Powerful signal? Absolutely. Risk-free? Not even close.

The company’s scale is still hard to ignore. At 818,869 BTC, Strategy holds more Bitcoin than almost any institution on the planet. That gives it enormous upside if BTC keeps climbing. It also means the company is more tightly tied to Bitcoin’s price swings than a trader with too much leverage and not enough sleep. Every move in BTC matters. Every financing decision matters. Every dividend obligation matters.

Key takeaways and questions:

How much Bitcoin did Strategy buy?
Strategy bought 535 BTC in its latest purchase.

How much did Strategy pay for the new Bitcoin?
About $43 million, with an average purchase price of roughly $80,340 per BTC.

How much Bitcoin does Strategy hold now?
The company now holds 818,869 BTC.

Why does this purchase matter?
It shows Strategy is still aggressively accumulating Bitcoin despite fresh scrutiny around funding and dividend obligations.

What is BTC Yield?
It is Strategy’s way of measuring how much Bitcoin exposure it is effectively adding relative to its financing structure, or more simply, how much BTC it is getting per share over time.

Why are people talking about Strategy selling Bitcoin?
Because Michael Saylor said the company could sell some BTC if needed to help fund dividend payments, even while arguing Strategy would remain a net buyer over time.

How is Strategy funding its Bitcoin purchases?
Mainly through stock sales and other financing tools, including MSTR Class A common stock issuance.

What caused the recent concern about Strategy’s finances?
A $12.54 billion Q1 net loss tied to the lower value of its Bitcoin holdings, plus the ongoing pressure of preferred dividends and other funding obligations.

Is Strategy still committed to Bitcoin accumulation?
Yes. Despite the financing questions, Strategy is still buying and continues to frame itself as a long-term net accumulator of BTC.

For Bitcoin believers, Strategy is a bold demonstration that corporate balance sheets can be used to accumulate hard money instead of sitting in fiat and pretending cash is a strategy. For critics, it is a highly leveraged bet wearing a suit and tie. Both views can be true. The company is still buying, still preaching, and still very much in the game — but the boring, annoying, very real questions about cash flow and obligations are where the actual risk lives. That’s usually how it goes. The fireworks get the headlines. The plumbing decides who gets soaked.