Strategy stops buying bitcoin after five straight weeks and spends $205 million buying back its STRC preferred shares instead

Strategy, the largest public-company holder of bitcoin, sat out the market last week and spent its money on its own preferred stock instead.

In a Form 8-K filed on Monday, the company said it bought and sold no bitcoin between October 19 and October 25 and sold no shares under its at-the-market program. The Block said the pause ends a five-week run of purchases. Over the same days Strategy repurchased 2,068,459 shares of STRC, its variable-rate "Stretch" preferred stock, for $204.9 million, or about $99 a share, using its USD Cash account. It bought back none of its other preferred series and no common stock.

Its holdings stay at about 848,517 BTC, acquired for $64.02 billion at an average of about $75,446 per coin including fees, the filing shows. The Block put their value at about $67.9 billion, more than 4% of all bitcoin. Strategy also reported $4.83 billion in its USD Reserve, which covers preferred dividends and debt interest, and $242.4 million in USD Cash. It has $956.8 million left under its preferred buyback program and $1 billion under its common stock program.

The week ahead is busy for the company. Shareholder voting on its preferred-stock proposal closes at 11:59pm Eastern on Tuesday, before a special meeting on Wednesday; if it is approved and dividends are declared, STRC would move to daily dividends from November 1 and three other series from January 1, according to an earlier filing. Strategy reports third-quarter results after the market closes on Thursday, per CoinDesk's calendar.