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Strategy Sinks 39% in 2026, Trailing the Bitcoin ETF It Was Built to Beat

Strategy’s (NASDAQ:MSTR | MSTR Price Prediction) shares are rising Monday afternoon, up 5% to $97.95, but the headline this week isn’t today’s bounce. The year-to-date (YTD) scoreboard shows the Bitcoin treasury company trailing the…

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Strategy’s (NASDAQ:MSTR | MSTR Price Prediction) shares are rising Monday afternoon, up 5% to $97.95, but the headline this week isn’t today’s bounce. The year-to-date (YTD) scoreboard shows the Bitcoin treasury company trailing the spot Bitcoin ETF it was built to outperform.

Monday afternoon, Strategy stock was down 36% YTD and down 73% over the past year. Meanwhile, the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ:IBIT) shares were down 27% YTD. Strategy sells itself as leveraged bitcoin exposure, so a down year for the asset means a harder fall, and the premium investors once paid for that leverage has compressed, leaving holders absorbing downside without keeping the premium.

A Monday 8-K and reporting from Bloomberg, Stocktwits and Decrypt laid out how the accumulation machine ran in reverse last week. Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) recovered from a weekend dip below $63,000 and traded around $63,500, up 0.9% over 24 hours.

The Flywheel in Reverse

Strategy did not buy or sell bitcoin in the seven days ended August 16. The company’s holdings sit at 840,447 BTC at an average purchase price of $75,385, down from a peak above 847,300 BTC.

Strategy sold roughly 3,458,866 shares of common stock through its at-the-market program for $333.7 million in net proceeds, at an average of $96.48 per share, down from $99.17 the week before. Those proceeds split three ways: $52.4 million to pay STRC preferred dividends, $132.2 million to repurchase STRC shares, and $149.1 million into the dollar reserve.

Strategy’s buyback took in 1,388,720 STRC shares and leaves $653 million of the $1 billion Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program announced June 29. A separate $1 billion authorization covering MSTR common stock has not been touched. The company’s dollar reserve reached $4.8 billion, up from $4.65 billion a week earlier and up roughly $1.5 billion in three weeks.

Strategy hasn’t bought bitcoin since mid-June. Since May, the company has sold about 6,948 BTC for roughly $432 million, including a 1,690 BTC sale earlier in the month for around $108 million. A June capital framework permits up to $1.25 billion of bitcoin sales for dividends, interest, buybacks and reserve, of which roughly $429 million has been used, leaving about $820 million of untouched capacity.

Underwater Position and Two Framings

Per Decrypt, at roughly $63,500 per bitcoin, Strategy’s holdings are worth about $53.4 billion against the $63.36 billion the company paid, a shortfall of around $9.9 billion. Bloomberg described the position as worth about $58 billion, so published estimates of current value differ.

Bloomberg also reported that Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor announced a pivot at the end of June from bitcoin accumulation toward capital management, and that Saylor first floated breaking his “never sell” mantra in May. Strategy has framed the transactions as funding preferred dividends and building the reserve rather than a broader shift. Per Stocktwits, retail sentiment on Strategy and Bitcoin improved to bearish from extremely bearish over the past day.

Comparing MSTR to Crypto ETFs

The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF is the direct comparison because it holds Bitcoin, not equity in a company that holds bitcoin. That structural difference matters to investors who bought Strategy for exposure they could get more simply elsewhere. IBIT shares are a single-asset crypto product with full bitcoin volatility, no diversification, and no leverage.

The Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (NYSEARCA:BITQ) shares were up 14% YTD through Friday, a reminder that crypto-linked equities broadly have fared better than Strategy this year. The fund is a narrow thematic product with meaningful concentration risk and no leverage.

Coinbase and MARA Holdings

Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) stock was down 34% YTD through Friday and is up 1% to $150.60 Monday. The exchange operator remains one of the largest U.S. crypto venues by volume.

MARA Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) shares were up 2% YTD through Friday and up 1% to $9.34 Monday. The miner and digital infrastructure operator’s positive YTD line contrasts with Strategy’s decline.

What to Watch

The constructive read on Strategy is that a $4.8 billion dollar reserve materially reduces near-term forced-selling risk, no Bitcoin was sold last week, and the company holds an enormous position. However, the bear read is that funding dividends with common stock dilutes holders, shares are being sold at progressively lower average prices, and the company has paused accumulating the asset that defines it.

Investors can watch for whether Strategy resumes buying bitcoin, whether it draws on the roughly $820 million of remaining sales capacity, and how quickly the dollar reserve continues growing. The untouched $1 billion common stock buyback authorization and the widening or closing of the Strategy versus IBIT YTD gap are other markers worth tracking into year-end.

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