Strategy reported a $12 billion paper loss due to bitcoin. Why is the stock rising?
Immediately after the report quotations were falling by 5%, but then sharply changed direction
Michael Saylor's IT firm Strategy, one of the largest holders of bitcoin in the world, has posted a huge loss for the fourth quarter of 2025, it said in a statement. Photo: Bangla press/Shutterstock
IT company Strategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin in the world, reported a quarterly loss of more than $12 billion, up 18 times from the same period a year earlier. "Paper" losses due to the sharp decline in the value of bitcoin outweighed moderate growth in software revenue, Seeking Alpha noted. Meanwhile, Strategy shares were up about 7% on the premarket on Friday.
Details
Strategy, which owns nearly 4% of all bitcoins in circulation, reported a net loss of $12.4 billion, or $42.93 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2025. Analysts had predicted the loss, but assumed it would be half that - $20.99, Seeking Alpha reports. By comparison, in the fourth quarter of 2024, the loss was only $670.8 million or $3.03 per share.
Meanwhile, revenue for the quarter was $123 million, slightly above analysts' expectations of $118.5 million.
Unrealized losses on digital assets the company owns at fair value rose to $17.5 billion in the quarter, up from $1.1 billion a year ago. As of Feb. 1, 2026, Strategy owned 713,502 bitcoins with a total value of $54.26 billion, or $76,052 for each token.
"We raised $25.3 billion in 2025 Treasury bitcoin strategy, making us the largest equity issuer among U.S. public companies for the second consecutive year," said Strategy President and CEO Fong Lee.
What about the stock
Strategy shares at the pre-market on February 6 rose in price by about 7%. At the same time, at the extended trading on Thursday, February 5, after the release of reports, quotes, on the contrary, fell by almost 5%, Barron's noted. The main trading on Thursday ended with a collapse of 17%: the company lost more than $6 billion of capitalization for one day, the agency reported.
Strategy stocks were able to move from correction to growth thanks to bitcoin's rebound. If on February 5, its price fell to almost $60,000, the next day the value rose again to $70,000. At the time of publication of this text, the largest cryptocurrency by capitalization was worth $66,500, CoinGecko service shows.
What the market is saying
In recent months, the price of bitcoin has almost halved compared to the record set on October 6: this has significantly affected Strategy's financial results, writes Barron's. The reason is that a new accounting rule introduced last year requires unrealized gains and losses on cryptocurrencies to be included in the company's net income, the publication explained.
Investors are particularly concerned that bitcoin is now trading well below the average price of $76,052 that Strategy paid for its 713,502 coins, Barron's also noted. Market participants "want to understand how the company plans to raise capital to continue its bitcoin buying strategy in a challenging market - both in the crypto space and in general," Benchmark Capital analyst Mark Palmer told the publication.
Strategy shares are now 30% cheaper than they were at the beginning of 2026. At the same time, analysts almost unanimously advise to buy the securities: they have 14 Buy ratings and one Overweight ("above market") versus only two Hold recommendations, MarketWatch shows. There is no advice to sell.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
