This bullish analyst on Michael Saylor's Strategy just threw in the towel on lofty price target

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This bullish analyst on Michael Saylor's Strategy just threw in the towel on lofty price target

Canaccord's Joseph Vafi slashed his price target on the plunging bitcoin treasury company's stock by more than 60%.

By Will Canny, AI Boost|Edited by Stephen Alpher

Feb 4, 2026, 2:26 p.m.

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Strategy price target slashed as bitcoin’s ‘identity crisis’ clouds near-term outlook: Canaccord. (CoinDesk)

What to know:

• Canaccord's Joseph Vafi cut his price target on Strategy (MSTR) to $185 from $474, though still maintaining a buy rating.
• Vafi had previously been highly bullish on Michael Saylor’s company, lifting his price target only this past November.
• Strategy is built to weather volatility, Vafi said, noting the company's modest debt relative to its bitcoin holdings.

With crypto winter clearly having set in, bulls are now left looking for signs that the bearishness has become so embedded that a bottom might form.

One case in point might be a note from Canaccord's Joseph Vafi on Wednesday, slashing his price target on Strategy (MSTR) by a whopping 61% to $185 from $474.

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Vafi, who lifted his outlook on Strategy as recently as November (to that $474 level), still maintains a buy rating on the stock, and his new $185 target suggests about 40% upside from last night's close of $133.

Strategy is now down 15% year-to-date, 62% year-over-year, and 72% from its record high in November 2024.

Bitcoin, said Vafi, is in the midst of an “identity crisis,” still fitting the profile of a long-term store of value but increasingly trading like a risk asset. That tension came into focus during October’s crypto flash crash, when forced liquidations accelerated selling.

Though frequently cast as “digital gold,” bitcoin has failed to keep pace with the recent surge in precious metals, he continued. As gold has climbed on geopolitical tensions and macro uncertainty, bitcoin has lagged, underscoring its ongoing dependence on liquidity and risk appetite rather than safe-haven demand.

Strategy is built to weather volatility, the report said. The company holds more than $44 billion in bitcoin against roughly $8 billion in convertible debt, including a $1 billion tranche puttable in 2027 that remains in the money. Preferred dividends are manageable through modest share issuance, even with MSTR's market cap no longer commanding much of a premium to the value of its BTC holdings.

Quarterly results are coming this week, but they have become largely immaterial given Strategy’s near-complete dependence on BTC, Vafi continued. A sizable unrealized loss tied to bitcoin’s fourth-quarter selloff is expected.

Vafi’s new $185 target assumes a 20% rebound in bitcoin prices and a recovery in the company’s mNAV to about 1.25x.

Read more: ETF that feasts on carnage in bitcoin-holder Strategy hits record high

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AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.