MicroStrategy’s $64 billion Bitcoin (BTC) bet has been a stress test for everyone involved. BTC is now trading below $60,000, and a company called Strategy, is staying at a lower price for its own products.
The question dividing investors was no longer whether the Strategy would be resolved tomorrow. He is the one who takes the losses while the company keeps its money and still pays to operate it.
How the Bitcoin Flywheel Was Built
By June 22, Strategy held 847,363 BTC bought $64.1 billion, an average of 75,651 each. This is the largest Bitcoin trading platform anywhere.
The model moves like a flywheel. The company sells stocks and bonds, buys more Bitcoin, and its shares rise as BTC rises. However, falling prices rotate the machine in reverse.
BTC has it has fallen below $60,000 this weekits lowest level since 2024. Reserves have fallen with it, falling below the value of Bitcoin in its books.
The new accounting standard made the pain visible. Starting in 2025, the FASB’s ASU 2023-08 requires companies to record Bitcoin at a fair value every quarter. As a result, Strategy booked $14.46 billion in unrealized cash until early 2026. That produced $12.54 billion in cash, or $38.25 per diluted share.
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Who Pays MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin Bet
The bill does not fall on Strategy alone. As the flywheel slows down, the beam spreads to five levels, more and more difficult.
- Common shareholders
They stand first in line. When the stock is trading below the price of Bitcoin, the company still raises money by selling new shares. Each transaction buys less Bitcoin than they do.
“If we were to sell $1 billion of MSTR stock and buy $1 billion of Bitcoin… if you do it at 1.0x MNAV… it’s a very low yield. It’s a yield of at least 48. It costs shareholders $310 million,” Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman, Strategy, he said on the Q1 2026 earnings call.
The existing owners are left with a small amount of debt for the same coins, and this reduction is how the system makes money.
- Investors in other financial institutions
The copycats have done worse than the originals. Their shares have previously traded higher than their Bitcoin holdings, boosted by hype.
When the premium disappeared, many Bitcoin Treasury company stocks it fell harder than Bitcoin itself, leaving late buyers underwater.
“If there hasn’t already been an explosion, how can the explosion happen?” Tom Lee, Chairman of BitMine, he said where most value stocks are traded below their fair value.
- Passive and index fund investors
This group did not choose to bet. The value of the MSCI has proposed removing companies whose digital assets account for more than half of their total assets from the global index.
“Comments from the discussion confirmed that investors are concerned that some DATCOs exhibit characteristics similar to investment funds, which are not suitable for inclusion in MSCI’s index,” MSCI said. he said in its official announcement earlier this year.
The method removes the wound easily. An exception would force index funds and pension trusts to sell themselves, at whatever cost, to keep up with the benchmark.
- Convertible bondholders are preferred stockholders
These vendors were lent to thinking that MicroStrategy could renovate. If Bitcoin remains depressed until 2027, the idea ends.
“Proceeds from bitcoin trading are expected to be used to finance preferred stock,” Strategy showed in June 1 Form 8-K.
Bondholders may want cash, and bondholders still expect dividends, all taking in just $1.4 billion.
- MicroStrategy only
The company is the ultimate foundation. On his own first quarter of 2026 to get moneyMichael Saylor again developed Strategy as a network buyer who never sells.
“Maybe we’ll sell Bitcoin to raise money to help get the market going, just to send a message that we’ve done it.”
However, if money is frozen while loans and benefits are due, keeping the promise may be impossible.
“We will sell Bitcoin if it benefits the company. We will not sit back and say we will not sell Bitcoin,” CEO of Strategy Phong Le. he added.
The real test will come in 2027
MicroStrategy is facing an edge call today. Its senior debt is unsecured, so a low price alone cannot trigger a forced sale. The risk is a date, not a rate.
Who has $ 1.01 billion convertible Notice they can demand repayment on September 15, 2027. If the shares fall below the exchange rate, the claim becomes the amount the company has to pay.
The strategy is almost complete. In 2022 Silvergate The Bitcoin-backed loan took the edge phone closer to $21,000 before the company backed out. The move to unsecured articles and preferred stock removed the trigger, but not the responsibility.
Some of your friends are already blinking. This month another Nasdaq company he sold Bitcoin to return it debt, and its shares jumped. Experts have also said asked Strategy as he left the water if forced to sell at scale.
Currently, there is no forced sale. The pressure has just shifted from the price point to the calendar. The number that matters is no longer $60,000, but the return date of September 2027.
A note Who Pays When MicroStrategy’s $64 Billion Bitcoin Bet Goes Wrong? appeared for the first time BeInCrypto.
