In brief

• Strategy issued common stock to buy more Bitcoin.
• The proceeds were also used to pad its “cash reserve.”
• The Bitcoin-buying firm did not issue any preferred shares.

Strategy affirmed on Monday that buying Bitcoin isn’t its only priority in 2026, even as it dropped another $116 million on the asset to welcome in the new year.

The balance of Strategy’s so-called USD Reserve has increased to $2.25 billion, the Tysons Corner, Virginia-based firm said in a press release. Meanwhile, the company said it held nearly 673,800 Bitcoin, which was worth around $62.8 billion, based on current prices.

Strategy signaled that its USD Reserve, established just over a month ago, was padded using proceeds from the issuance of common stock. When the company unveiled its USD Reserve in December, Strategy initially raised $1.44 billion to fund the initiative.

Strategy’s USD Reserve was established to effectively pre-fund cash dividends for various tranches of preferred stock, a novel yet controversial source of funding that it embraced last year. In the week through Sunday, however, Strategy didn’t tap the products for funding.

Strategy instead raised $312 million by issuing common stock, while holding onto a majority of those funds. The company hasn’t issued any preferred shares since the week ended Dec. 14, when it disclosed back-to-back Bitcoin purchases totaling nearly $1 billion each.

Strategy shares rose 4% on Monday to $163, according to Yahoo Finance. The initial jump follows a 49% decrease in the company’s stock price last year, with analysts focused on the implications of Strategy’s potential delisting from MSCI indices in recent months.

Strategy has called on the financial giant to not exclude Bitcoin-buying firms from its indices, a move that JPMorgan analysts have warned could spark billions of dollars in outflows from the firm. Other analysts have described Strategy’s creation of cash reserves as prudent.

Although Strategy’s Bitcoin purchases cooled as the asset fell from all-time high of $126,000 in October, the company purchased roughly 22,600 Bitcoin last month. That marked a notable acceleration from 9,000 Bitcoin the month before, as a key source of funding grew constrained.