Why MARA sold 40,581 BTC while Strategy spent $188M buying back preferred stock

For five years, the pitch for corporate Bitcoin equities rested on a single rule: sell Wall Street paper, buy scarce digital coins, and never touch the sell button. Between November 9 and November 10, 2026, three Securities and Exchange Commission filings released within 24 hours showed that the one-way valve has split into two opposite playbooks: the Dividend Treadmill and the Megawatt Pivot.

Start with Executive Chairman Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc. On November 9, Strategy filed a Form 8-K covering its at-the-market stock sales from November 2 through November 8. Across those seven days, Strategy sold 2,051,348 shares of MSTR Class A common stock for $283.8 million in net proceeds. Only $81.9 million of that cash (28.9%) went to buy 1,036 BTC at an average price of $79,012. More than twice as much, $188.3 million (66.3%), went to buy back 1,887,464 shares of Strategy’s variable-rate STRC preferred stock, while the remaining $13.6 million went to USD Cash.

FIG. 01 · ATM STOCK PROCEEDS

Strategy spent $188.3M of its $283.8M common stock sales buying back preferred shares and only $81.9M buying Bitcoin.

Allocation of Strategy Inc. net proceeds from selling 2,051,348 MSTR shares, Nov 2 to Nov 8, 2026 (USD) · Total $283.8M

Preferred buybacks and cash$201.9M

• Repurchase of 1,887,464 STRC preferred shares$188.3MStrategy Inc. Form 8-K (Nov 9)
• Allocated to USD Cash balance$13.6MStrategy Inc. Form 8-K (Nov 9)

Bitcoin treasury purchases$81.9M

• Purchase of 1,036 BTC at $79,012 average price$81.9MStrategy Inc. Form 8-K (Nov 9)

• Strategy also drew $21.1M from its $4.77B USD Reserve during the week to pay preferred stock dividends. Strategy Inc. Form 8-K (Nov 9)

Sources: Strategy Inc. Form 8-K (Nov 9). Figures in millions from Footnote 4 of the ATM Update table in Strategy Inc. Form 8-K (filed Nov 9, 2026). As of Nov 8, 2026, Strategy held 850,364 BTC acquired for $64.16B ($75,456 average cost).

When preferred dividends and collateral loans come due, Bitcoin becomes working capital

Follow the cash register across Strategy’s four perpetual preferred stock lines (10.00% STRF, variable-rate STRC, 8.00% STRK, and 10.00% STRD) and you see why common stock dilution is no longer flowing straight into spot Bitcoin. During that same week of November 2 to November 8, Strategy sold zero preferred shares and pulled $21.1 million out of its USD Reserve just to pay preferred stock dividends, leaving $4.77 billion in the reserve and $146.2 million in USD Cash. When preferred financing tightens, common shareholders fund both the dividend bill and the buyback exit for preferred holders above them.

Now look at the largest public Bitcoin miner by energized hash rate, MARA Holdings. In the third quarter of 2026, MARA’s energized fleet rose 18% year-over-year from 60.4 EH/s to 71.2 EH/s, producing 2,247 BTC (24.4 BTC per day across 644 blocks won). Yet third-quarter revenue dropped 35% year-over-year from $252.4 million to $164.2 million as the average price of Bitcoin mined fell 37% to $71,688 against a purchased energy cost of $39,674 per coin.

To cover bills without selling all of its production in prior quarters, MARA had borrowed heavily against its treasury. By September 30, 2026, out of 34,012 BTC ($2.84 billion) on its balance sheet, 19,260 BTC, or roughly 57% of its holdings, were loaned or pledged as collateral.

In October and early November, Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel unwound that leverage through the order book. Having sold 26,984 BTC for $1,918.7 million in the first nine months of 2026 (including 3,891 BTC at an average price of $75,300 in the third quarter), MARA liquidated another 13,597 BTC after September 30 at roughly $81,039 per coin for approximately $1.1 billion in proceeds, bringing its 2026 sales to 40,581 BTC (roughly $3.02 billion).

“After quarter-end, we repaid $750M of BTC-backed debt with proceeds from Bitcoin sales. The repayment released all BTC that had been pledged as collateral, leaving less than 5% of our BTC holdings loaned or pledged.”

MARA used $750.0 million of those post-quarter proceeds to repay 100% of its Bitcoin-collateralized term loans, unlocking 17,477 pledged BTC, cutting encumbered coins below 5% of holdings, and bringing year-to-date debt reduction to $1.4 billion (37% of total debt). Thiel wrote that MARA will keep monetizing Bitcoin to fund AI infrastructure, satisfy convertible note puts exercisable in 2027, and back a $500.0 million share buyback.

Bitdeer sold 98% of its Bitcoin stash first and locked in a $2.9B AI cloud backlog

If MARA shows a leveraged miner unwinding its Bitcoin vault mid-stream, Bitdeer Technologies Group shows what happens when an industrial miner refuses to hoard coins at all.

In its third-quarter Form 6-K filed on November 10, Bitdeer disclosed that proprietary hash rate more than doubled year-over-year from 35.0 EH/s to 86.4 EH/s across 3,098,000 MWh at $47 per MWh. Bitdeer mined 3,855 BTC in the third quarter, up 248% from 1,109 BTC a year earlier, yet held just 47 BTC on September 30, 2026, down 97.7% from 2,029 BTC a year prior.

By converting mined coins into working capital alongside customer prepayments, CFO Michael G. Potter reported that Bitdeer lifted third-quarter revenue 89% year-over-year to $320.7 million and grew Adjusted EBITDA 173% to $69.6 million (with a $125.5 million GAAP net loss including $54.6 million in non-cash loan adjustments). Bitdeer has secured 332 IT megawatts of AI Cloud capacity and built a $2.9 billion AI Cloud backlog, anchored by a 16-year, $4.7 billion lease in Tydal, Norway (expandable to $8.0 billion) across 121 IT MW.

MARA is racing down the same track: its Exaion unit signed a four-year, $79 million GPU-as-a-service contract on 100% take-or-pay terms, won federal approval to close its 485 MW Long Ridge power plant acquisition in Ohio, and posted a $100.0 million letter of credit for an ERCOT study covering up to 2 gigawatts in Matagorda County, Texas.

FIG. 02 · THREE BTC BALANCE SHEETS

Public Bitcoin miners liquidated thousands of coins in 2026 to cut debt and build AI power while Strategy retired preferred stock.

SEC filing disclosures across Strategy, MARA Holdings, and Bitdeer Technologies (Nov 9-10, 2026)

Company	Recent BTC flow	BTC held	Capital destination
Strategy Inc. (MSTR)	+1,036 BTC ($81.9M, Nov 2-8)Strategy Inc. Form 8-K (Nov 9)	850,364 BTC ($75,456 avg)Strategy Inc. Form 8-K (Nov 9)	$188.3M STRC buyback, $21.1M divStrategy Inc. Form 8-K (Nov 9)
MARA Holdings (MARA)	-40,581 BTC (~$3.02B YTD)derived	34,012 BTC (Sep 30, pre-sale)MARA Q3 Shareholder Letter	Repaid $750M BTC loans, AI powerMARA Q3 Shareholder Letter
Bitdeer (BTDR)	3,855 BTC mined in Q3 (+248%)Bitdeer Q3 2026 Form 6-K	47 BTC (-97.7% vs 2,029 YoY)derived	332 MW AI cloud ($2.9B backlog)Bitdeer Q3 2026 Form 6-K

Sources: Strategy Inc. Form 8-K (Nov 9), MARA Q3 Shareholder Letter, MARA Q3 2026 Form 10-Q, Bitdeer Q3 2026 Form 6-K. MARA sold 26,984 BTC ($1,918.7M) in 9M 2026 per Form 10-Q Note 5 and 13,597 BTC (~$1.1B at ~$81,039) after Sep 30 per Q3 Shareholder Letter, releasing 17,477 pledged BTC.

The math of $75,456 cost basis against contracted megawatts

As of November 8, Strategy held 850,364 BTC acquired for $64.16 billion, or $75,456 per coin. With last week’s purchases at $79,012, Strategy’s five-year stack sits just 4.7% above average cost while preferred dividends drain $21.1 million in a week and $188.3 million of common stock dilution retires STRC preferred shares.

For miners paying $40 to $47 per megawatt-hour on multi-gigawatt interconnections, pledging thousands of Bitcoin to borrow cash for power bills no longer pencils out against multi-year take-or-pay AI leases. A financial wrapper must keep selling equity to service its capital stack; an operator with substations can sell the coins, pay off the loan, and rent the megawatts.

Not financial advice.