CryptoQuant urges Strategy to halt bitcoin buying as dividend cover shrinks to 14 months
Analytics firm says Michael Saylor's Strategy should pause bitcoin purchases and rebuild cash after a sharp fall in liquidity cover.
CryptoQuant, the on-chain analytics firm, has called on Strategy, the bitcoin treasury company formerly known as MicroStrategy, to suspend further bitcoin purchases and rebuild its cash reserves before resuming its accumulation strategy. The recommendation, published on 23 June, marks one of the sharpest institutional challenges yet to the “buy and never sell” doctrine associated with Strategy’s executive chairman, Michael Saylor.
The warning centres not on bitcoin’s price but on Strategy’s own balance sheet discipline. CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno, argues that the company’s liquidity position has deteriorated sharply enough that continued buying, without first restoring a cash buffer, now represents a meaningful financial risk to the business rather than to the asset it holds.
Cash buffer down 38%, dividend runway collapses
According to CryptoQuant’s figures, Strategy’s US dollar cash reserves fell 38% during 2026, dropping to roughly $1.1 billion by mid-June. Over the same period, annual dividend obligations on its STRC preferred shares roughly quadrupled to around $1.2 billion a year.
The combined effect is a dramatic collapse in dividend coverage. CryptoQuant calculates that Strategy’s runway for meeting its preferred-share obligations has shrunk from more than seven years to roughly 14 months, a shift the firm says has occurred within a single market cycle.
Moreno has recommended that Strategy rebuild its reserves to approximately $2.8 billion, equivalent to around 24 months of dividend coverage, before resuming any further bitcoin purchases. CryptoQuant also estimates the company is currently sitting on around $10.6 billion in aggregate unrealised losses on its bitcoin holdings.
Preferred shares trading below par
The stress is already visible in Strategy’s capital markets pricing. STRC preferred shares were trading at around $82.50 in mid-June, roughly 17.5% below their par value, a discount that reflects investor concern over the company’s ability to sustain its dividend commitments while continuing to expand its bitcoin treasury.
The Block separately reported that CryptoQuant is pressing Strategy to adopt a more disciplined framework governing when it buys and, crucially, when it might sell bitcoin — a departure from the company’s long-standing public position that it would never liquidate its holdings.
Why it matters for institutional watchers
Strategy remains the largest corporate holder of bitcoin globally and has served as a template for other listed companies experimenting with crypto treasury strategies, including several now examined by European institutional investors and analysts under MiCA-era disclosure expectations. A credible, independent analytics firm questioning the firm’s liquidity discipline — rather than its bitcoin thesis itself — raises fresh questions for boards and auditors assessing similar treasury models on this side of the Atlantic.
For UK and European institutions monitoring exposure to bitcoin-linked equities and preferred instruments, the episode underscores a growing distinction in market scrutiny: between the volatility of the underlying asset and the balance-sheet mechanics — dividend obligations, cash coverage and preferred-share pricing — of the corporate vehicles that hold it.
Read more: JPMorgan flags Strategy’s $3bn cash buffer as a bitcoin resilience signal
