8 Lessons In Bitcoin Treasury Strategy From The Strategy (MSTR) Q1 Call

May 2, 2025 Emily Gray

Strategy (MSTR) just released its Q1 2025 earnings presentation, and it was more than a routine update—it was a full blueprint for how to scale a corporate Bitcoin treasury with institutional rigor. Strategy (formerly Microstrategy) laid out its evolving capital plans, updated KPIs, and the financial logic behind every lever it pulls.

If you are a CFO, investor, or strategic operator evaluating Bitcoin as a corporate asset, this earnings call offered a clear look at how to think about Bitcoin-backed capital structure, performance measurement, and long-term value creation. Here are the key takeaways:

1. Relentless Bitcoin Accumulation at Scale

Strategy now holds 553,555 BTC—the most of any public company on Earth. Year-to-date, they acquired an additional 106,085 BTC at an average price of ~$93,600, bringing their total market value to approximately $52 billion. That equates to 2.6% of the total Bitcoin supply.

What makes this notable isn’t just the size of the holding—it’s the pace and consistency of accumulation. Strategy has added to its Bitcoin position in every single quarter since August 2020. Not one quarter missed. This isn’t opportunistic allocation—it’s a disciplined treasury play.

Importantly, 100% of MSTR’s Bitcoin remains unencumbered. That makes it pristine collateral, usable for future fixed income instruments or as a backstop for equity-linked offerings.

For corporate finance leaders, this underscores that Bitcoin can be scaled and managed with the same predictability as any core treasury asset—if the systems and discipline are in place.

2. $10B Raised in Just Four Months

In the first four months of 2025 alone, Strategy raised $10 billion through a diversified capital stack:

$6.6B via ATM equity
$2.0B via convertible notes (0% coupon, 35% conversion premium)
$1.4B via preferred equity (Strike & Strife)

This pace is remarkable. But more importantly, every capital raise is measured against BTC-specific KPIs: yield, torque, and NAV impact. Each issuance is assessed not by fiat metrics like EPS or EBITDA, but by its ability to compound Bitcoin per share.

That distinction is critical: Strategy (MSTR) isn’t trying to play defense against inflation. They’re playing offense—turning capital into Bitcoin, and Bitcoin into long-term outperformance.

For other public companies, this is a roadmap for executing a Bitcoin capital strategy without relying on operating income or waiting for a high-cash-flow quarter.

3. A New Capital Ambition: The $42/$42 Plan

In Q4 of 2024, Strategy launched the “21/21 Plan” to raise $21B in equity and $21B in fixed income. As of Q1 2025, they’ve nearly completed that.

So they doubled it.

The new target is the “42/42 Plan”:

$42 billion in equity
$42 billion in fixed income
Timeline: End of 2027

Why does this matter? Because it establishes a model for scalable Bitcoin accumulation through structured capital formation. Strategy isn’t just holding Bitcoin; they’re building the architecture to do it perpetually.

This capital plan gives them the runway to scale with market conditions, work different ends of the yield curve, and refine leverage over time. It’s a level of financial engineering that treasury teams should study.

4. Bitcoin KPIs Reimagined: Yield, Gain, and Torque

Strategy raised its internal targets for 2025:

BTC Yield: 15% → 25%
BTC Dollar Gain: $10B → $15B

What do these mean?

BTC Yield is the growth in Bitcoin per share, net of dilution.
BTC Gain is the total value of Bitcoin acquired through capital operations.
BTC Torque measures value created for shareholders per dollar of capital raised.

Instead of chasing traditional operating metrics, Strategy is laser-focused on how much Bitcoin they can accumulate per share over time. It’s a KPI framework that makes dilution irrelevant—as long as every issuance leads to more Bitcoin per shareholder.

This reframing of capital efficiency will become increasingly important for all Bitcoin treasury companies as adoption scales.

5. MSTR Stock as a Volatility Engine

One of the more surprising insights from the call: Strategy now tracks the “MSTR Rate”—a 103% annualized yield that traders can earn by selling at-the-money call options on MSTR.

This metric matters because it helps explain why MSTR stock trades at a premium to its Bitcoin NAV. The equity itself has become a financial product: volatile, liquid, and durable. That makes it attractive not just to equity investors, but to vol traders, ETF builders, and income-seeking institutions.

This is a real-world example of how Bitcoin exposure, when paired with deep capital market access, can create new types of yield for shareholders without sacrificing Bitcoin custody.

6. Strike and Strife: Capital Without Dilution

In Q1 2025, Strategy launched two new preferred instruments:

Strike: 8% convertible preferred
Strife: 10% perpetual preferred

Both are public, liquid, and yield-generating. Importantly, they provide permanent capital with:

No refinancing risk
No collateral requirements
No covenants

In the case of Strife, there’s also no conversion into equity, which means zero dilution to shareholders. These are powerful tools for scaling BTC acquisition without compromising on shareholder value or control.

As these instruments mature, they may create a new fixed-income market anchored in Bitcoin—a development that could pull large capital allocators into the ecosystem.

7. BTC Credit Ratings: A Framework for the Future

Strategy proposed an entirely new way to evaluate corporate credit instruments: using BTC as collateral.

They introduced metrics like:

BTC Risk: Likelihood of undercollateralization at maturity
BTC Credit Spread: Yield required to offset BTC risk
BTC Credit Hurdle Rate: Minimum ARR required to maintain investment grade

Using this model, Strategy (MSTR) argues that its convertible notes and preferreds are significantly over-collateralized and should be considered investment grade—even though the market currently treats them as distressed debt.

Saylor’s call to action? Encourage rating agencies to adopt BTC-backed credit frameworks. If successful, this could legitimize a brand new fixed-income category: Bitcoin-backed investment grade corporate debt.

8. MNAV and Shareholder Value Creation

One of the most overlooked insights from the earnings call was how Strategy calculates and supports its premium to Bitcoin NAV (“MNAV”).

Saylor outlined three key drivers of MNAV:

Capital raised at a premium to NAV
High BTC yield and torque over time
Perceived durability and optionality of the capital structure

By using instruments like Strife (which generates 19 basis points of BTC yield without dilution), Strategy can drive massive shareholder value while retaining downside protection. Their model shows that raising capital at 2x NAV and deploying it into BTC generates more long-term value than simply holding.

For corporate strategists, this reframes equity issuance not as dilution, but as a levered mechanism for Bitcoin compounding.

Final Takeaway: Strategy Is Building the Financial Operating System for Bitcoin

This earnings call wasn’t just an update. It was a vision statement.

Strategy (MSTR) isn’t simply holding Bitcoin—they’re monetizing the volatility, collateralizing the balance sheet, and creating a new asset class in the process.

If you’re a public company CFO or board member evaluating Bitcoin, there is no longer any question of whether it can be done responsibly. The question is: do you understand how to make it accretive?

Because the companies that do will unlock a capital advantage that others simply won’t be able to match.

Disclaimer: This content was written on behalf of Bitcoin For Corporations. This article is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be interpreted as an invitation or solicitation to acquire, purchase, or subscribe for securities.

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