MicroStrategy Changes the MSTR-Bitcoin Link: What Do Shareholders Own?

Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, has overhauled the MSTR metrics it reports, and the new numbers make one thing clear. Much of its huge Bitcoin (BTC) pile is already promised to lenders and preferred investors, not regular shareholders.

The company says the change gives common shareholders a fairer picture. It shows how much Bitcoin is truly theirs after everyone else is paid first.

What the New Metrics Really Show

Strategy holds about 843,775 Bitcoin. That is the largest stash owned by any public company. On paper, its live dashboard values that Bitcoin at around $58 billion. But not all of it belongs to shareholders.

Lenders and preferred investors get paid first. They are owed about $22 billion. Take that out, and roughly $36 billion in Bitcoin is left for common shareholders. Strategy now calls this the net reserve.

MicroStrategy Net Reserve. Source: Strategy on X

The firm took on that debt to buy more Bitcoin. It laid out the approach in its Digital Credit framework this year. It also tested new numbers during an earlier metrics debate in June.

The Real Cost of the Debt

There is a catch. Servicing that debt and preferred stock costs about $1.8 billion a year. Strategy pays it in interest and dividends. It even keeps a cash reserve, set up in December, to cover those bills.

The new metrics also show the risk. A number called amplification, now about 1.53x, measures it. Put simply, shareholders gain more when Bitcoin rises. They also lose more when it falls. The stock proves the point. MSTR has dropped about 77% in a year, far more than Bitcoin’s 45% fall.

MicroStrategy Stock (MSTR) and Bitcoin (BTC) Price Performance. Source: TradingView

MicroStrategy also reworked its main value gauge, known as mNAV. It compares the share price to the Bitcoin left for shareholders, and it now sits at 1.00x. In plain terms, the old premium is gone.

The company admits its older numbers hid this. They left out the investors who get paid first. So Bitcoin bought with borrowed money may never reach common shareholders. Critics have questioned the mNAV model for months.

“Bitcoin Capital Markets require a new financial language,” said, Michael Saylor, the firm’s founder and executive chairman.

Bitcoin traded near $65,136 as of this writing, down about 1.4% on the day. When it falls, shareholders feel it first, which decides who absorbs the losses.

The plan itself has not changed. Strategy still buys Bitcoin, and it still owes its lenders first. But shareholders can now see how much Bitcoin is really theirs.

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