Strategy shares soar 50% in a month as Bitcoin tops $80,000 ahead of Q1 earnings call

Strategy is on a tear.

Shares of the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder have surged more than 50% over the past month, riding the top crypto’s climb past $80,000 as short sellers scramble for the exits and institutional money pours back in.

On Monday, MSTR jumped another 4% to nearly $184 per share, adding to a 7% surge on Friday. After-hours trading suggests the stock’s price has inched up at least another 2% ahead of Strategy’s first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.

The rally comes amid renewed institutional demand. Bitcoin exchange-traded funds drew $827 million in the first two trading days of May alone, extending a two-month winning streak, DefiLlama data shows. Over $200 million in short positions were liquidated in a single day as the rally gathered pace.

Strategy shares are seen as a leveraged bet on Bitcoin, and the firm's stock price closely tracks the top crypto.

Bitcoin's rally above $80,000 is sound, according to Jake Kennis, senior research analyst at Nansen. He told DL News that the funding rate — a key measure of market temperature — sits at a healthy 0.00045% hourly, well below the overheated readings that typically precede a sharp correction.

"With $2.4 billion in open interest and daily perpetual volume of $3.4 billion outpacing spot turnover, derivatives are clearly playing a significant role in price discovery around this level," Kennis said. "The moderate funding rate and balanced buy/sell ratio don't indicate extreme leverage build-up that would suggest a major pullback."

Q1 earnings call

All eyes now turn to Strategy's first quarter financial results.

Consensus voices expect revenue of around $125 million, up from $115 million a year earlier, alongside an accounting loss tied to Bitcoin's price swings and financing costs. But investors are paying less attention to the income statement than to the capital markets machine Saylor has built underneath it.

Strategy has quietly transformed from a software company with a Bitcoin position into a financing vehicle built to convert market demand into Bitcoin exposure. The engine driving that machine is STRC — Strategy's Bitcoin-backed preferred stock, paying a variable dividend of around 11.5% annually — which has grown to $8.5 billion in notional value in under nine months.

"The world's $300 trillion credit market is a much bigger opportunity than the world's roughly $2 trillion Bitcoin market, and Strategy has built the first product to bridge the two," Michael Saylor, Strategy's founder and Executive Chairman, told the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas last week.

BlackRock's iShares Preferred & Income Securities ETF has already taken a $210 million position in STRC. Saylor says the instrument has financed the acquisition of roughly 77,000 Bitcoin so far this year — ten times the net inflow of all US spot Bitcoin ETFs combined over the same period.

“STRC is a battery that stores Bitcoin gains and distributes them over time,” said Strategy CEO Phong Le.

Strategy did pause its Bitcoin buying streak ahead of Tuesday's earnings — only the second such break this year, according to Saylor. Its most recent purchase added 3,273 Bitcoin at an average price of around $77,900.

Strategy is scheduled to release its first quarter financial results at 10 pm London time or 5 pm US Eastern time on Tuesday. Saylor has promised a live question-and-answer session, with notable guests to be announced.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is up 0.7% over the past 24 hours at $80,886.
• Ethereum is down 0.5% over the past few hours at $2,381.

What we’re reading

• Aave secures emergency hearing to void ‘catastrophic’ restraining order — DL News
• Clarity Act odds surge on stablecoin compromise, Coinbase support — DL News
• World Liberty Financial Quietly Sold Billions in Tokens as Early Investors Remained Locked Out — Unchained
• $80K: we got there. Now what? — Milk Road
• Ethereum devs huddled in the Arctic Circle to fix the network. Here’s what to know — DL News

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com