Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Azuma (@azuma_eth)
On July 31, Beijing time, the bitcoin treasury company Strategy officially released its financial report for the second quarter of 2026 after the US stock market closed.
The financial report shows that Strategy's total revenue for Q2 was $122 million, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%; however, affected by Bitcoin price fluctuations, the company recorded a net loss of $8.22 billion, with unrealized losses from changes in the fair value of digital assets amounting to $8.32 billion.
From a purely traditional financial reporting perspective, this is undoubtedly a poor report card. However, for Strategy, the market had already anticipated the decline in the net value of reserve assets during the BTC downtrend cycle. The more pressing question for investors is — after undergoing its most severe capital structure stress test since inception, can Strategy prove the sustainability of its financing model again?
Since May this year, Strategy's most important financing tool, STRC, has gradually deviated from its target par value of $100, once dropping to a low of $74.57. As of the close of the US market today, it temporarily reported $89.5, still not back to its peg.
Today's financial report can be seen as the first detailed answer sheet submitted by Strategy since the STRC crisis began to unfold. The results show that Strategy remains committed to its Bitcoin strategy, but its capital model has undergone a dramatic change — from the relatively fixed cycle of continuous fundraising and hoarding BTC in the past, to more active capital management using cash reserves, preferred stock, common stock, and the BTC assets themselves.
BTC Reserves Continue to Grow, But 'Buying' Is No Longer the Only Option
In the second quarter, Strategy's overall BTC holdings continued to grow.
Financial report data shows that as of the end of Q2, Strategy holds 843,775 BTC, an increase of approximately 11% from the previous quarter. The company's current Bitcoin reserve value is approximately $55 billion, with an average holding cost per BTC of about $75,000. This means that despite recording huge paper losses due to BTC price volatility, Strategy is still adhering to its core strategy of being a "Bitcoin Treasury."
Furthermore, Bitcoin per Share for Strategy increased from 201,170 sats to 210,824 sats in Q2. From this metric, Strategy still achieved positive asset accumulation in Q2.
However, it is important to note that since the launch of the "Digital Credit Capital Framework" aimed at solving the STRC depegging issue at the end of Q2 (June 29), Strategy's current BTC capital system has been reconfirmed to no longer have only the "buy" direction.
- Odaily Note: For details on the "Digital Credit Capital Framework," please refer to "Lightning Five-Whip! Strategy's Self-Rescue Plan Officially Released."
In this financial report, the company systematically disclosed the progress of the BTC "Monetization Program" (part of the "Digital Credit Capital Framework" plan) for the first time — as of July 26, Strategy has sold approximately $218.4 million worth of BTC through this program.
This means that for Strategy, BTC is gradually shifting from being a purely long-term reserve asset in the past to becoming an actively managed tool on the balance sheet.
Although Strategy still emphasizes treating BTC as a core reserve asset, as the digital credit system expands, Strategy is trying to establish a more flexible capital structure — in a favorable market environment, raise funds by issuing securities to expand BTC reserves; when market conditions are under pressure, manage liquidity through cash reserves, securities repurchases, and the BTC monetization program.
The Top Priority Now is Still Fixing STRC
During the investor conference call following the earnings release, Strategy's management clearly stated: "Bringing STRC back to its par value is the company's core task at present."
Facing the current situation where STRC is still trading at a discount around $89.5, Strategy's management outlined several feasible paths to push STRC back to its target trading range during the call.
Strategy founder Michael Saylor emphasized that before STRC recovers to its target range, Strategy will not issue a single share of STRC at a discount, to avoid harming existing investors' interests. In other words, Strategy's current priority is not to continue stimulating financing, but to first repair market trust in its digital credit system.
Addressing market speculation that the company might continuously increase the dividend rate to stimulate STRC buying pressure, Strategy CEO Phong Le clarified that increasing the STRC interest rate is not an effective way to drive the price back to par, and the company plans to maintain the annual dividend rate at 12%. Compared to further increasing the yield, Strategy currently hopes to restore market confidence by bolstering its cash safety net — as of July 26, Strategy's USD reserve has been increased to $3.75 billion, sufficient to cover preferred stock dividends and debt interest payments for over 2.1 years.
In the previously mentioned "Digital Credit Capital Framework," Strategy disclosed a plan to launch up to $1 billion in digital credit securities repurchases, which would prioritize repurchasing discount-trading STRC. To date, Strategy has repurchased approximately $28.9 million in face value of STRC, with an actual payment of $25 million.
Saylor also emphasized that there is still $975 million in available capacity under this repurchase plan. If $975 million is insufficient to fill the gap, Strategy's total reserves of up to $58.5 billion can provide backup funding support.
Saylor gave a clear reference timeframe for re-pegging during the call — when STRC was first listed, the company spent about 70 trading days to push it from around $90 back near par. Since STRC fell below the $99 pegging range on May 28, 40 trading days had passed as of the earnings call. Strategy management is targeting the same 70-trading-day repair cycle, setting September 8 (the 70th trading day) as a key reference node for pushing STRC back to its peg.
Strategy Shifts to Active Capital Management
If the logic of Strategy's previous capital flywheel could be summarized as the one-way cycle of "issue stock/debt ➡️ buy BTC ➡️ drive NAV and stock price up ➡️ continue financing ➡️ continue buying BTC," then this quarter's financial report clearly declares the end of this one-way model, replaced by "two-way active capital management."
During the conference call, Phong Le elaborated on this shift. The current Strategy is no longer just a one-way "buyer." Instead, it has integrated the four core elements on its balance sheet — BTC, USD cash reserves, common stock (MSTR), and digital credit (preferred stock/convertible bonds like STRC) — forming a dynamic management matrix for multi-directional allocation:
- BTC shifts from 'One-way Hoarding' to 'Flexible Monetization': It can not only serve as underlying reserves but can also, when necessary, be monetized to replenish USD reserves, pay preferred stock dividends, or even provide funds for securities repurchases.
- Capital Tools Shift from 'One-way Issuance' to 'Two-way Arbitrage and Repurchase': When STRC or common stock trades at a discount or is undervalued in the market, the company can initiate repurchase plans of up to $1 billion each to capture gains in Bitcoin per Share (BPS); when a certain asset is trading at a premium, targeted issuance can be conducted.
- Active Optimization of Debt Structure: In Q2, Strategy repurchased $1.5 billion in convertible bonds at an 8% discount during a market pullback, reducing long-term debt from $8.2 billion to $6.7 billion, a net debt reduction of 18%.
By flexibly allocating various assets, Strategy is attempting to prove that it is not merely a passive ETF alternative fluctuating with the coin price, but an operating company capable of using capital market volatility for self-regulation and liability management.
Future Tests: STRC Re-pegging & BTC Price
Overall, the Q2 financial report demonstrates Strategy's risk resilience and model adjustment capabilities to some extent. However, whether this capital flywheel can regain acceleration still fundamentally depends on one short-term and one long-term test.
The short-term test is the result of STRC's repair. Although the STRC discount has eased somewhat since the "Digital Credit Capital Framework" was released, it has not fully returned to its peg yet. As the cornerstone of the digital credit system, whether STRC can return to its target trading range as soon as possible will directly determine the market's baseline trust in its credit expansion ability and is a prerequisite for its flywheel to restart fundraising through issuance.
The long-term test is the trend of BTC's price. All of Strategy's capital arbitrage and liability management are ultimately built upon the long-term appreciation expectation of Bitcoin. Only if BTC emerges from its slump and returns to an upward trend can its growth logic receive genuine support.
