Forget the stock price. That’s a derivative of the thing that matters.
Each MSTR share backs
213,597 sats
+54,770 sats (+34.5%) in the past year . Every preferred share issued brought in more sats than existing shares already had. That’s not an accident—it’s the structure.
As of April 20, 2026 — 815,061 BTC held. Source data on the explorer →
This is not “buy and hold”
MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin accumulation follows a geometric series of tranches. The company raises capital—preferred shares, converts, ATM offerings—and converts it to Bitcoin. The machine is designed to keep running, indefinitely, as long as one condition holds.
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. Model each dividend as a geometric series—each payment a fraction of the prior one, shrinking toward zero—and the infinite promise collapses to a finite Bitcoin cost. Whether that cost sits below or above the BTC raised is the only math question that actually matters.
The frameworks that change everything
Why Fiat Fails
Fiscal dominance explained. $38+ trillion in debt, 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 Capital Structure Stack
Convertible notes, preferred stock, ATM offerings. How each instrument serves a different investor while feeding the same accumulation machine.
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.
The data is public. The conclusions aren’t free.
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.
What isn’t free: the structure. The implied CAGR buried in each preferred’s pricing. The Forever Cost of each tranche’s coupon stream. The mNAV threshold where issuance flips from accretive to dilutive. Which instruments are creating value for common shareholders and which ones they should vote against. That analysis—14 chapters, arithmetic shown—is in Measure in Sats.
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
What’s a sat?
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 815,061 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.
Dave Lawler
Dave Lawler
Bitcoin Treasury Analyst · 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.
More from Dave Lawler
The math is straightforward. The implications are profound.
Measure in Sats is coming soon. Join the waitlist and we’ll notify you at launch.