Strategy erased nearly $8 billion of net debt in 11 months and put S&P’s junk rating on the clock

Strategy, the largest Bitcoin treasury firm, is making a case for an escape from its B- junk credit rating after building billions of dollars in liquidity and reducing debt.

On Sept. 10, Strategy’s head of investor relations, Chaitanya Jain, said the Michael Saylor-led company has strengthened its balance sheet in the three areas S&P Global Ratings previously identified as potential paths to an upgrade: dollar liquidity, convertible debt, and capital-market access during Bitcoin stress.

S&P affirmed Strategy’s B- issuer credit rating with a stable outlook in December 2025, after initially assigning the grade in October. The rating remains six notches below BBB-, the lowest rung of investment grade.

Strategy builds the cash cushion S&P wanted

The sharpest shift has come in the amount of dollar liquidity sitting between Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings and its financial obligations.

Jain said dollar liquidity increased from $54 million on Sept. 30, 2025, to $6.54 billion as of Sept. 7, giving the company roughly four years of capacity to fund interest and preferred dividends without relying on Bitcoin sales.

Strategy’s latest regulatory filing breaks that amount into two pools. Its designated USD Reserve stood at $5.10 billion, while another $1.44 billion was held as USD Cash. The reserve is earmarked for preferred dividends and interest, while the additional cash can also be used for Bitcoin purchases, security repurchases, and other capital-management purposes.

That leaves Strategy with considerably more flexibility during periods when issuing new securities becomes difficult.

S&P had identified the company’s liquidity structure as a central weakness because its debt interest, maturities and preferred dividends are payable in dollars while most of its assets are held in Bitcoin. The agency warned that a severe decline in Bitcoin combined with reduced capital-market access could eventually force Strategy to sell the asset at depressed prices.

The company has also reduced the debt instrument S&P singled out as a potential source of pressure.

Convertible debt has fallen to $6.71 billion from $8.21 billion after Strategy repurchased $1.5 billion of its 0% convertible senior notes due 2029 in May. It paid about $1.38 billion for the notes, an 8% discount to par.

Jain said net debt, measured against the company’s growing dollar liquidity, has consequently dropped from about $8.16 billion after the third quarter of 2025 to roughly $174 million as of Sept. 7.

That calculation does not eliminate Strategy’s broader obligations. The company still carries billions of dollars of perpetual preferred stock with dividend commitments that remain part of the liquidity burden S&P considers.

Strategy's financing machine remained open through Bitcoin stress

Strategy is also pointing to its ability to keep selling securities through 2026 as evidence that the financing channel S&P feared could weaken during a Bitcoin downturn has remained open.

Jain said the company raised $21 billion across common and preferred equity from January through August, securing capital in every month of the period. During this period, BTC price dumped more than 30% and fell to under $60,000. Its value has since recovered near $80,000 as of press time.

Despite this price action, Strategy continued to attract significant investor fundraising.

S&P made continued market access central to both sides of its ratings outlook. The agency said it could downgrade Strategy if deteriorating Bitcoin prices impaired its ability to raise capital or increased the likelihood that it could not manage out-of-the-money convertible debt.

Its upside case ran in the opposite direction. A longer-term upgrade would require stronger dollar liquidity, reduced reliance on convertible debt, and continued capital access through a period of Bitcoin stress.

Bitcoin concentration remains the hurdle

The balance-sheet improvements leave S&P with a different credit profile to assess, but they do not remove the structural feature that has weighed most heavily on Strategy’s rating.

Strategy remains overwhelmingly exposed to Bitcoin.

As of Sept. 9, the company held 845,050 BTC acquired for $63.73 billion at an average price of about $75,412 per coin. That leaves much of its balance sheet exposed to an asset capable of sharp drawdowns, even after Strategy built a larger dollar cushion against its payment obligations.

S&P highlighted that concentration risk, saying the company’s Bitcoin-heavy treasury focus and comparatively small software business limited the potential for a higher rating.

The question now is whether the new liquidity and debt profile provides enough protection against that risk to justify a reassessment.

S&P has taken no fresh rating action since the latest balance-sheet changes, and Jain stopped short of predicting one. He said:

“More liquidity. Less debt. Continued funding access. Any rating upgrade remains S&P’s decision.”

The timing could soon put that argument to the test. S&P said in October 2025 that an upgrade was unlikely within 12 months, a period that runs through late October 2026.