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Investors massively short Strategy shares — report
- Strategy has become the leading U.S. company in terms of investor preference for short positions.
- Experts cited arbitrage strategies as the main reason.
- Short interest in Strategy has risen to 14%.
Shares of Strategy (MSTR), known for its aggressive Bitcoin accumulation strategy, have become the most popular short trade among major publicly traded U.S. companies, according to reports.
At the same time, analysts at Goldman Sachs noted that this does not necessarily indicate widespread bearish sentiment.
According to data from FactSet and Goldman Sachs, short interest in MSTR has reached about 14% of its market capitalization (approximately $34 billion at the time of assessment). For comparison, Coinbase ranked fourth with around 11%.
However, a significant portion of these positions may be part of complex trading strategies rather than outright bets on a decline.
The reason: arbitrage strategies
Experts point out that the high short interest is linked to so-called basis trading strategies. Their goal is to profit from price discrepancies between related assets.
In this case, traders:
- buy spot Bitcoin ETFs, particularly iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) by BlackRock;
- simultaneously short Strategy shares.
The objective is to profit if the premium of Strategy’s stock relative to the value of its Bitcoin reserves narrows.
“I suspect a significant portion of this short interest is still related to basis trading with MSTR versus Bitcoin. In particular, Jane Street recently built a notably large position in IBIT,” said analyst Brian Brookshire.
According to Yahoo! Finance, citing Form 13F, Jane Street purchased more than 7 million IBIT shares while also holding a substantial position in MSTR.
However, in 2026 this strategy has not yet worked:
- MSTR is down 20% year-to-date and more than 60% over the past six months;
- IBIT is down 27%;
- the MSTR-to-IBIT ratio has increased by about 12%.
This means Strategy has relatively outperformed the ETF.
At the time of writing, MSTR shares are trading at $124.6.
MSTR stock price. Source: Google Finance.
$17.4 billion loss and a long-term Bitcoin bet
Fundamentally, the company remains tightly linked to Bitcoin. Since 2020, Strategy has accumulated 717,722 BTC worth approximately $47 billion, according to Bitcoin Treasuries.
At the same time, for Q4 2025 Strategy reported a total loss of $17.4 billion, including Bitcoin assets. Despite this, CEO Phong Le emphasized the resilience of the business even if Bitcoin were to fall to $8,000. Management also reaffirmed its intention to continue accumulating BTC despite volatility.
See also: "IT stocks fell amid AI risks and increased pressure on Bitcoin"
