Strategy Shares Pop as Bitcoin Holdings Flip Green, Near $61 Billion
The Bitcoin-buying firm’s stockpile had shown losses on paper since early February.
By André BeganskiEdited by Andrew HaywardApr 17, 2026Apr 17, 20263 min read
In brief
- Strategy shares jumped 10% to $164 on Friday after Iran declared that the Strait of Hormuz was “completely open” to commercial ships for the remainder of a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
- The Bitcoin-buying firm’s stockpile showed gains on paper for the first time since early February as Bitcoin bounced to $77,200.
- The crypto market's weaker price momentum and lingering investor caution remains concerning, according to IG Group's Alex Rudolph.
Strategy shares surged on Friday as cooling tensions in the Middle East and Bitcoin’s ensuing rally propelled the firm’s massive digital stockpile back into the black.
The company’s stock price had jumped 10% to $164 by 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time, according to Yahoo Finance. The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based firm saw shares soar above $173 earlier in the session, marking their highest peak since mid-January.
Bitcoin had climbed 4.1% over the last 24 hours to trade near $77,200, according to CoinGecko. After accumulating nearly 781,000 Bitcoin at an average price of $75,577, Strategy saw its $60.5 billion bet thrust into the green for the first time in three months with the move.
The shift likely offered a reprieve for Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, whose firm—the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder—had been under fire as paper losses ballooned into the billions as the asset dipped to $65,600 this year.
“Bitcoin and chill,” Saylor said in an X post on Friday, sharing an apparently AI-generated image of himself lounging shirtless on a luxury yacht in a pair of orange shorts.
Friday’s bounce followed a declaration from Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, that the Strait of Hormuz was “completely open” to commercial ships for the remainder of a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that took effect late on Thursday.
Strategy shares were on track for their best daily performance in over a month, a move that “highlights just how sensitive these names are to shifts in broader risk sentiment, rather than purely crypto-specific drivers,” IG Group Market Analyst Alex Rudolph told Decrypt.
Bitcoin and Chill. pic.twitter.com/1WVPIEEBT4
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) April 17, 2026
Easing geopolitical tensions may have prompted a return to risk-on positioning; however, Rudolph said that a short-term boost does “not resolve the underlying pressures facing crypto markets, including weaker price momentum and lingering investor caution.”
Strategy shares remained down 42% from $279 over the past six months. The company’s tumbling stock price raised questions last year about whether Bitcoin’s price could become further depressed if Strategy were forced to pare its holdings amid the rout.
For some, those fears have been heightened by Strategy's embrace of STRC. As the company has doled out billions of dollars worth of the dividend-paying product, the firm has become saddled with additional costs for the foreseeable future.
On Myriad, a prediction market owned by Decrypt parent company Dastan, traders foresaw a 13% chance that Strategy would sell Bitcoin this year. Around the time that Strategy’s holdings turned negative in early February, they penciled in a 30% chance of sales happening.
“Because they have such a large stockpile, they are starting to become a gorilla that can move the market,” Bitwise Senior Investment Strategist Juan Leon told Decrypt. “It adds more psychological pressure to the downside than to the upside, because the worry for investors becomes ever greater when they're underwater.”
Strategy’s average purchase price may represent a key threshold from the perspective of investor sentiment, but Leon also pointed to the $76,000 mark as the realized holder price for individuals betting on Bitcoin amid the broader market.
“I think we really have to hold that level and continue trading above it to really feel that this rally can have legs,” he said. “Otherwise, if we stay below it, I think this is just a dead cat bounce.”
