I’m watching Strategy’s balance sheet closely because the company appears to have made a major shift in the financial position that once made its Bitcoin-heavy strategy a credit-rating concern.
The biggest change is liquidity. Strategy’s dollar liquidity has reportedly climbed from just $54 million in September 2025 to around $6.54 billion by September 7, 2026. That gives the company a much larger buffer to cover interest payments and preferred-stock dividends without being forced to sell Bitcoin during a weak market.
According to the company, this liquidity is divided between a $5.10 billion USD Reserve and approximately $1.44 billion in additional USD Cash. The reserve is primarily intended to cover preferred dividends and interest, while the additional cash provides more flexibility for Bitcoin purchases, share repurchases and other capital-management decisions.
For me, this is important because it directly addresses one of the biggest risks highlighted by S&P Global Ratings: Strategy earns most of its asset value from Bitcoin, while many of its financial obligations have to be paid in dollars.
Strategy has also reduced its convertible debt. Its convertible debt reportedly fell from $8.21 billion to $6.71 billion after the company repurchased $1.5 billion of 0% convertible notes due in 2029 for about $1.38 billion.
The company’s investor-relations head, Chaitanya Jain, pointed to the improvement in its balance sheet, saying Strategy has strengthened itself across the three areas S&P had previously identified as important: "dollar liquidity, convertible debt, and capital-market access during Bitcoin stress."
The numbers make that argument stronger. Jain said net debt relative to Strategy’s dollar liquidity dropped from roughly $8.16 billion after Q3 2025 to around $174 million by September 7, 2026.
But I don’t think the story ends there.
Strategy’s ability to raise capital during Bitcoin weakness is another major part of the picture. The company reportedly raised around $21 billion through common and preferred equity between January and August, with fundraising continuing throughout the period even as Bitcoin experienced a major decline.
That matters because S&P’s concern was never simply that Bitcoin could fall. The bigger problem would be a Bitcoin crash happening at the same time as capital-market access disappears, potentially leaving Strategy with no easy way to meet its dollar obligations.
So far, Strategy appears to have demonstrated the opposite.
However, there is still one major obstacle: Bitcoin concentration.
As of September 9, Strategy reportedly held 845,050 BTC, acquired for approximately $63.73 billion at an average cost of around $75,412 per Bitcoin. That means the company remains heavily dependent on the performance of BTC, regardless of how much cash it has accumulated.
S&P previously viewed this concentration as a major limitation because Strategy’s software business is relatively small compared with the value and importance of its Bitcoin treasury.
This is why I think the potential S&P reassessment is becoming particularly interesting.
Strategy has strengthened liquidity, reduced convertible debt and continued accessing capital markets through Bitcoin volatility. Those are exactly the areas that could improve its credit profile.
S&P gave a roughly 12-month window in which an upgrade was considered unlikely, meaning late October 2026 could become an important point for the company.
The key question now isn’t whether Strategy has improved its balance sheet — the numbers suggest it clearly has.
The real question is whether those improvements are strong enough for S&P to look past Strategy’s enormous Bitcoin concentration and move its B- rating closer to investment grade.
For me, that is the part of this story worth watching.