rewrite this title What Is Strategy (MSTR)? The Bitcoin Treasury Company – Decrypt

Today, Strategy is one of the most important institutions in cryptocurrency, but it didn’t start out that way. Originally called MicroStrategy, the company co-founded by Michael Saylor—one of the most influential figures in the world of Bitcoin—first made its mark in software.

Now, however, it’s best known for its aggressive strategy of acquiring Bitcoin for its corporate reserves, with Saylor becoming a key figurehead for the institutional adoption of the asset.

Here’s everything else you need to know about Strategy and its relationship with Bitcoin.

What is Strategy?

Before it added Bitcoin to its balance sheet, Strategy was best known for its business intelligence software solutions, which were designed to help businesses more easily analyze data for improved decision making.

Founded in 1989 by Michael Saylor, Strategy quickly became successful, going public and trading on the NASDAQ in 1998 as MSTR. But just two years later, Saylor and two other top executives at Strategy had to settle a case with the SEC, which alleged that the company had “materially overstated revenues and earnings from the sales of software and information services.”

After a brief spike in its share price in 2000, MSTR traded in a tight range for the next two decades, only beginning to make a major move upwards at the end of 2020—the same year it announced its first Bitcoin purchase.

Until early 2025, Saylor’s company operated as MicroStrategy—but dropped the “Micro” in February, opting for a more powerful and positive tone with just Strategy. The rebrand became synonymous with the popular The Social Network film reference in which Mark Zuckerberg is advised to the drop “The” from “The Facebook.”

Strategy’s Bitcoin treasury reserve

In 2020, Strategy made a groundbreaking move: the company adopted Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset. Concerned about the devaluation of the United States dollar and fiat currency due to inflation, Saylor spearheaded the company’s first purchase of $250 million in Bitcoin as a hedge against economic uncertainty.

“This investment reflects our belief that Bitcoin, as the world’s most widely-adopted cryptocurrency, is a dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash,” he said at the time.

The company’s Bitcoin buying strategy has evolved over time and shifted to primarily using the sale of convertible notes to raise funds to buy more Bitcoin. In other words, Strategy utilizes short-term debt raises via convertible notes that allow investors to eventually cash in for Strategy stock. It then uses the funds raised from the sale of the notes to buy Bitcoin.

This strategy has ultimately been adopted by other publicly traded companies like MARA, Metaplanet and Riot Platforms. In December 2024, Saylor likened this strategy to the development of Manhattan real estate, telling CNBC that, “Every time Manhattan real estate goes up in value, they issue more debt to develop more real estate.”

The firm signaled in October 2024 that it has no plans on slowing down in the future. At that time, Strategy announced plans to raise up to $42 billion in order to add more of the leading cryptocurrency asset to its balance sheet.

Seeking more though, the firm passed a vote in January 2025 to implement a 30x increase of its Class A common shares, allowing it to add even more Bitcoin than initially planned.

Days later, the company announced the offering of a new stock, Strike (STRK)–as a new way for it to raise money to buy Bitcoin. Selling shares for $80 a piece, the firm aimed to grab another $584 million for Bitcoin purchases to build out its treasury. The firm announced another $2 billion convertible senior notes sale in February 2025.

Throughout the year, the firm would launch additional preferred stock offerings to help fund its Bitcoin purchases, granting different types of investors access to different risk-adjusted products like Stretch (STRC), Stride (STRD), Strife (STRF), and Stream (STRE) in addition to Strike.

The strategy of raising debt to buy Bitcoin has ultimately been adopted by other publicly traded companies like MARA and Riot Platforms. In December, Saylor likened this strategy to the development of Manhattan real estate, telling CNBC that, “Every time Manhattan real estate goes up in value, they issue more debt to develop more real estate.”

As Strategy has become ever more closely intertwined with Bitcoin, the company now refers to itself as the “World’s First and Largest Bitcoin Treasury Company” via its investor relations page.

Michael Saylor, Bitcoin convert

Though Michael Saylor is now one of the loudest voices advocating for Bitcoin, he wasn’t always a Bitcoin bull.

Just seven years before his company adopted the crypto as its main reserve asset, Saylor tweeted that “#Bitcoin days are numbered. It seems like just a matter of time before it suffers the same fate as online gambling.”

Since then, Saylor has done a complete 180°, claiming Bitcoin is the best long-term asset to hold while committing to “buying the top forever,” referring to consistently purchasing the asset at its peak prices—which Strategy continues to do.

In Saylor’s view, that means he might be buying Bitcoin at $13 million, the price target he’s established for the asset over the next 21 years as he expects it to take up a larger percentage of total global capital.

The case against Strategy’s Bitcoin reserve

Strategy’s persistent Bitcoin acquisitions via the sale of debt has faced scrutiny by analysts and media in the space. In November 2024, Robinhood-backed Sherwood Media outlined the “math problem,” with MSTR being worth 3x the amount of BTC that it holds and the potential of forced liquidations in a drawdown.

This premium, known as the firm’s mNAV or its multiple to its net asset value, has historically traded at a strong premium for Strategy. However, as Bitcoin fell in 2026, Strategy’s mNAV—which had reached as high as 3.89x in November 2024—dropped below 1, meaning the company’s market cap is now valued below the value of its Bitcoin holdings.

The falling mNAV corresponded with around a 70% drop in the MSTR share price over the six-month period from August 2025 to February 2026, with the company reporting a loss of $12.4 billion in Q4 2025.

Skeptics have often noted that if the MSTR share price falls enough, Strategy could be forced to sell Bitcoin to repay billions in convertible notes, “effectively reversing its ‘perpetual motion machine’…which would further decrease Bitcoin’s price,” according to Sherwood Media.

But as shares fell, alongside BTC in February 2026, Saylor called concerns about the firm’s ability to pay its debts and dividends “unfounded,” noting that his firm would just “refinance the debt” should the price of BTC fall far enough.

To help avoid situations where the firm may be forced into selling BTC, it established a cash reserve in December 2025, kickstarting it with $1.44 billion in funds. It later added to that pile, ultimately securing more than 2.5 years worth of debt and dividends as of February 2026, according to Saylor—who claims that the company can cover its $6 billion debt if BTC falls as low as $8,000.

The future of Strategy

Strategy has continued its consistent Bitcoin purchases.

As of February 2026, it holds 717,131 Bitcoin, worth nearly $48 billion—making it the largest Bitcoin treasury among publicly traded companies. According to data from SaylorTracker, Strategy is down more than $6.5 billion on its purchases lifetime.



Saylor’s ambitions for Strategy are even grander than adding major Bitcoin reserves to the company’s balance sheet. In October 2024, he outlined his vision for Strategy to evolve into a “Bitcoin bank” with a trillion-dollar valuation, creating capital market instruments tied to Bitcoin that can be offered to investors.

In addition to adding to its own holdings, Saylor has pitched Strategy’s Bitcoin playbook to other major publicly traded companies. In December 2024, he told the Microsoft board they could stand to create $5 trillion in value by adopting Bitcoin. They voted against adding it to their balance sheet.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on January 8, 2025 and last updated with new details on February 20, 2026.