2 months ago
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The Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System has disclosed a stake of more than $3 million in Strategy shares, the software turned Bitcoin treasury firm led by Michael Saylor.
The disclosure shows that the State’s Employee Fund, which manages retirement assets for public workers in Louisiana, now holds 17,900 shares of MSTR. Based on BitcoinTreasuries.NET’s reported price at the time of disclosure, the position is valued at approximately $3.2 million.
The stake forms part of an investment portfolio overseen by the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System. It has reported total assets of $1.56 billion in its latest filing. The fund’s other holdings are concentrated in US tech companies Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet.
US state public funds increase Bitcoin exposure as Strategy adds coin holdings
Since Strategy pivoted its business to become a DAT, several public funds touted have been picking up its shares as a proxy investment to Bitcoin. As reported by Cryptopolitan last Monday, chairman Michael Saylor disclosed that the company acquired 13,627 Bitcoins for a total cost of $1.25 billion, at an average of $91,519 per coin.
Bitcoin later climbed above $97,000 in the week before tanking from the start of the weekend. The Asian market on Monday opened with the coin trading below $93,000. Strategy’s market Net Asset Value (mNAV), which compares the firm’s fully diluted enterprise value, adjusted for debt and cash, to the value of its Bitcoin holdings, currently stands at 1.07.
An mNAV of 1.07 means investors are paying more than the spot value of the crypto held on the balance sheet. Even so, the Louisiana Employee Fund is seemingly confident in MSTR and is hoping for a reversal in Bitcoin’s price back to six figures, which could push the stock price back to its 12-month high of $450.
The Louisiana fund has joined the state of New York in investing in Strategy, which increased its MSTR position to $50 million in mid-December, when the stock was experiencing single-day declines of as much as 7%.
Does Strategy have an influence on the Bitcoin market?
Strategy’s Nasdaq-listed shares have climbed 12.37% since the start of 2026. However, over the past six months, MSTR’s price has dropped by 61%. Although the stock rose 4% last week and closed Friday up 1.6% to $173, it is still trading almost two-thirds below its all-time high.
As the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, the company is coined the largest corporate market “whale,” capable of influencing prices through its actions. Some members of the crypto community believe any BTC sales by Strategy could cause market instability, which could then spiral to firms with business relationships with the DAT.
Jan van Eck, founder of the investment firm bearing his name and an investor in digital assets himself, said his firm has avoided Strategy’s hunger for Bitcoin because “It’s just publicity.”
Herb Greenberg, a longtime financial analyst, said the Saylor-led business is a “quasi Ponzi scheme” that pays returns to existing investors by leveraging new capital, as it generates little operating income.
When asked by CNBC last year to address the Ponzi comparisons, Saylor defended the company’s use of leverage and equity issuance.
“Just like developers in Manhattan, every time real estate goes up in value, they issue more debt to develop more real estate. That’s why your buildings are so tall in New York City. It’s been going on for 350 years. I would call it an economy,” he said.
In early 2025, Strategy launched preferred share offerings marketed under names such as “Strike,” “Strife,” and “Stretch,” which promised cash dividends between 8% to 11% over fixed periods. The structure is similar to bonds issued by traditional finance, where operating revenue supports regular interest payments.
However, in Strategy’s case, the core business is about acquiring and holding Bitcoin, and cash dividends can be paid when Bitcoin prices are trading in the green, which MSTR’s price historically follows.
Saylor insists the company’s BTC investments are risk-free, saying in a podcast last fall that Strategy is not yet a “high-yield bank account, but would be pretty close.”
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