Strategy's (NASDAQ: MSTR) stock surged 16% in a single session, surpassing Netflix and Visa in daily trading volume and pushing its unrealized bitcoin profits to $4.7 billion. The rally tracked broader gains across bitcoin and ether, even as Strategy pauses new BTC purchases to buy back its STRC preferred shares.
Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) stock gained 16% on September 18 to close at $153, mirroring gains across the broader crypto market. Bitcoin rose to $81,000 before consolidating at $80,000. Ethereum, meanwhile, reached its highest price in eight months, above $2,600.
Other crypto-linked stocks followed: Coinbase (COIN) gained 11% and Circle (CRCL) rose 7% the same day.
Strategy becomes 16th most-traded US stock
Data from MarketBeat showed Strategy posted the 16th-highest dollar trading volume of any US stock on September 18, at $8.36 billion, surpassing larger companies such as Netflix and Visa. More than 54 million MSTR shares changed hands that day, mostly from buy-side orders — the highest buy-side volume for the stock since February 2026.
Strategy also said in a post on X that MSTR's 30-day average trading volume reached 5.4% of its market cap, above Tesla's 0.9%, Meta's 0.6%, and Nvidia's 0.5% of market cap.
Unrealized bitcoin profits hit $4.7 billion
The rally coincided with rising unrealized profits on Strategy's bitcoin holdings. The company's 845,050 BTC now carry $4.73 billion in unrealized profit, per Saylor Tracker data. Strategy has paused new bitcoin purchases for two weeks to focus on buying back its STRC preferred stock.
Strategy recently repurchased $139 million of STRC shares, bringing total STRC buybacks since July to $950 million. Those purchases pushed STRC preferred stock up 0.389% to close at $98.51, just 1.49% below its $100 par value.
Technical setup tests key resistance
MSTR's $153 close sits just above its 200-day EMA support of $152. Continued gains could push the stock toward the 161.8% Fibonacci level at $183. That target is reinforced by a MACD line that has crossed above its signal line, with histogram bars turning green.
Still, a bitcoin pullback driven by profit-taking could send MSTR back toward its 20-day EMA support at $129.
Source: CoinGape
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