A sat is one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin. This page asks what each share is backed by after capital raises, BTC purchases, and future claims are counted.
Saylor’s balance-sheet math, measured in sats.
Follow the sequence: raise capital, buy BTC, manage obligations, and test whether diluted shareholders end up with more sats behind each share.
Current model snapshot: 218,046 sats per diluted share as of June 22, 2026 with 847,363 BTC held. Change: +59,219 sats (+37.3%) in the past year. Source data on the explorer →
Read the machine in four steps
Start with the idea, then the evidence. The sequence explains what Saylor is doing and which numbers prove whether the financing improved the treasury.
1. The strategy
Use the balance sheet as a capital engine: issue securities, gather dollars, and convert those dollars into Bitcoin when the trade improves the treasury.
2. Why it matters
Raw BTC holdings can rise while shareholders lose ground. The useful question is whether the residual Bitcoin claim per diluted share improves after the financing.
3. How the math works
Convert cash uses and future obligations into BTC-equivalent terms, then compare what each new security costs against the sats it adds to the common-share base.
4. Which metrics matter
Track sats per diluted share, BTC-equivalent cost, real mNAV, and whether the latest capital action was accretive or dilutive on a source-backed basis.
This is not “buy and hold”
Strategy’s resting asset is Bitcoin, not dollars. Cash and T-bills are tactical buffers for dividends, debt, taxes, and timing; every dollar held instead of BTC carries a cash-drag question measured as expected BTC CAGR minus the reserve yield.
The right signal is sats per diluted share, not raw BTC holdings. Holdings only ever go up. Sats per share can go up or down, depending on whether new shares bring in more sats than existing shares already have. When they do, dilution is accretive. That’s what most analysts calling it “dilution bad” miss entirely.
Every preferred share is a future claim on Bitcoin. In failure, liquidation preference and seniority dominate. In the going concern case, the cost is the present value of future dividends measured in sats. Confusing those two paths is how the liquidation price takes over the model.
The frameworks that change everything
Why Fiat Fails
Fiscal dominance explained. $38+ trillion in debt,[1] interest payments at #2 on the budget, and the arithmetic that guarantees continued debasement. Not politics—math.
mNAV & Forever Cost
The two numbers that tell you whether a Bitcoin treasury company creates or destroys value. Why paying a premium can be rational—and when it’s not.
The Atomic Transaction Model
How to model each preferred share as self-contained. Why infinite dividends have finite cost. The geometric series that makes it all work.
Accretive Dilution
The phrase that confuses everyone. How share count increases while value per share also increases. Why sats per share is the only metric that matters.
The Optionality of a Bitcoin Treasury
BTC, cash/T-bills, common, and preferreds form a trading menu. The right move is the one that increases residual sats per common share after claims and frictions.
From Ideal to Real
Friction money. Execution risk. mNAV as report card. The spectrum from elite execution to extractive management—and how the market enforces discipline.
Move from the public explainer to the maintained model.
Anyone can download the 8-Ks. BTC holdings are disclosed every week. Sats per share is arithmetic. The full purchase history is on the explorer because the numerator and denominator are public record.
The member path is where the maintained model lives: implied CAGR in each preferred, the Forever Cost of coupon streams, the mNAV threshold where issuance flips from accretive to dilutive, and the source trail behind each conclusion. It is educational analysis, not individualized investment advice.
In the subscriber tier
- → Implied CAGR embedded in each preferred’s dividend structure
- → Forever Cost: the finite BTC price of each preferred’s infinite coupon
- → mNAV threshold where common issuance becomes dilutive
- → Preferred stack ranked: which instruments create value, which don’t
- → Treasury optionality: when BTC, cash, common, and preferred trades are accretive
Sats are the unit; share count is the denominator.
One Bitcoin divides into 100,000,000 satoshis (sats)—the smallest unit, the way cents relate to a dollar but eight decimal places deep. When Strategy holds 847,363 BTC and divides that by its diluted share count, you get the sats “behind” each share. That’s the metric. Watch it on the explorer and you’re watching the machine run.
Measure in Sats explains the method. Saylor’s Accountant runs the Strategy ledger.
The two pages should stay separate. This page teaches the balance-sheet engineering framework and points visitors to the right next action. Saylor’s Accountant is the live Strategy/MSTR ledger and checkout surface for the maintained member model.
Measure in Sats
The parent research brand: framework, source discipline, public explainers, and the first-principles model for measuring Bitcoin treasury companies in sats.
Saylor’s Accountant
The first BTC Treasury Ledger, focused on Strategy/MSTR. It owns the transaction-level workbook, member upgrade flow, and Strategy-specific model maintenance.
Open the member modelBitcoin Treasury Notes
The editorial channel can carry Dave’s commentary and launch notes, but it stays below the product journey so the first page does not split the visitor’s attention.
Dave Lawler
Dave Lawler
Bitcoin treasury research · Founder, Velocity Point
Three decades in enterprise software architecture. Built an AI company. Studies monetary systems and fiscal policy. Applied the same systems-thinking rigor to understanding how companies can build sustainable Bitcoin accumulation machines. Today he builds AI-powered businesses at Velocity Point — Second Ring, an AI receptionist for small businesses, is live now.
More from Dave Lawler
Ready to follow the model instead of the headline number?
Start with the source-backed explorer, then become a member when you want the maintained Strategy ledger and the full model.