Strategy, the Nasdaq-listed company run by Michael Saylor, has rolled out a new set of bitcoin-tracking metrics designed to show common shareholders exactly how much of the firm's 843,775 BTC treasury actually belongs to them once debt and preferred-stock obligations are accounted for. The centerpiece of the overhaul, unveiled July 24, is a figure called "Net Bitcoin Per Share," which strips out senior claims before dividing the remainder across a newly defined fully diluted share count.

The change comes as Strategy's once-simple pitch — a public company that buys and holds bitcoin — has given way to a far more layered capital structure. The company now carries multiple classes of preferred stock alongside a growing "Digital Credit" business line, and the overhaul comes as Strategy's capital structure has grown more complex, with what was once a simple story now involving multiple classes of preferred stock, a Digital Credit business line, and a growing gap between the company's market value and the bitcoin backing it. Strategy said the revamped figures were meant to "provide a more accurate picture of the Bitcoin value attributable to common shareholders" as Digital Credit becomes a larger share of its balance sheet.

How the New Math Works

At the heart of the new framework is a figure Strategy calls "net reserve," which the company puts at roughly $35 billion to $36.6 billion depending on the day it's measured. That number is what remains after subtracting about $22.2 billion in senior claims — $15.5 billion of preferred stock and roughly $6.8 billion of out-of-the-money convertible debt — from the company's Bitcoin holdings and cash reserve. Dividing that residual bitcoin value by the fully diluted share count produces Net Bitcoin Per Share, which Strategy says has risen from $13 (44,000 sats) at the end of 2020 to $95 (143,000 sats)—a 43% compound annual growth rate, against Bitcoin's 16%.

The company also retired its old modified net asset value benchmark in favor of a version anchored to the new metric. Under the revised formula, mNAV is calculated as MSTR price divided by Net Bitcoin Per Share, representing whether MSTR trades above or below Net Bitcoin Per Share after debt and preferred claims, and it currently reads at roughly 1.02x — essentially flat, a marked shift from years in which Strategy stock traded at a persistent premium to its gross bitcoin holdings.

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Strategy's head of investor relations, Chaitanya Jain, walked through the changes in a 30-minute video posted to the company's investor site, explaining that the metrics had to "evolve" as the business moved "from an era of convertible debt to now a focus on digital credit," and pointed to investor demands for clarity. Executive chairman Michael Saylor framed the shift in broader terms, posting on social media that "Bitcoin Capital Markets require a new financial language."

New Credit Gauges Track Solvency Risk

Alongside the equity-focused metrics, Strategy introduced a set of credit gauges meant to show how much downside the structure can absorb before it becomes strained. These include a "hurdle rate" of about 10.8%, described as Strategy's effective cost of credit, a break-even rate near 3.2%, and a "flow rate" of roughly -11% that estimates how far Bitcoin could fall before reserves stopped covering debt and dividends. The company also raised its so-called amplification ratio — a measure of how much Net Bitcoin Per Share moves for every 1% move in bitcoin's price — to about 1.52, meaning gains are magnified when bitcoin rises but losses are similarly deepened when it falls.

"Bitcoin Capital Markets require a new financial language."

Context: A Break From 'Never Sell'

The rebranding around "digital credit" traces back to a framework Strategy approved in late June, which for the first time authorized selling up to $1.25 billion of bitcoin to replenish cash, cover preferred dividends and fund buybacks — a departure from Saylor's long-held refusal to ever sell the company's holdings. In practice, the firm has raised cash by selling MSTR stock rather than Bitcoin, sparing its 843,775 BTC stack while diluting common holders in the weeks since. Separately, Strategy did sell a small tranche of bitcoin — between June 29 and July 5, Strategy sold 3,588 BTC for roughly $216 million to fund preferred dividends and rebuild its dollar reserve — one of the rare instances of the company trimming its position instead of adding to it.

The metric overhaul lands at a difficult moment for the stock. Strategy shares were trading around $93 on the day of the announcement, well below their 2024 peak, and the broader bitcoin market has cooled considerably, with the token trading roughly 50% off its all-time high. By the company's own admission, the sustainability of its debt-and-preferred-heavy structure now hinges on bitcoin not declining more than roughly 11% annually through the early 2030s — a threshold built directly into the new flow-rate metric.

What Comes Next

Strategy is set to report second-quarter earnings on July 30, which will offer the first real test of how markets respond to the new disclosure framework. Investors will be watching whether Net Bitcoin Per Share and the accompanying credit gauges settle in as the new standard for judging the company, or whether they simply confirm what critics have already argued: that a growing share of Strategy's bitcoin stack is effectively spoken for by lenders and preferred shareholders before common stockholders see any benefit.