Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, has reversed course on its long-held policy of never selling the cryptocurrency it has accumulated since 2020.
The company sold 1,690 BTC for $108.6 million in the week ending August 9, leaving 840,447 coins remaining in its treasury.
All proceeds from that sale were directed toward a $108.6 million buyback of STRC preferred shares, the third transaction under a $1 billion repurchase program.
The Bitcoin was sold at an average price of $63,957 per coin, roughly $11,500 below the company’s cost basis of $75,419, meaning Strategy is actively selling at a loss.
Strategy has not purchased any Bitcoin since June 22, marking its longest pause from accumulation since the company began its aggressive buying strategy years ago.
Since May, the company has sold a total of 6,948 BTC for approximately $432.5 million, consuming a substantial portion of its self-imposed $1.25 billion disposal limit.
The selling began in late May when Strategy disposed of 32 BTC for $2.5 million to fund preferred stock distributions, its first Bitcoin sale since December 2022.
CEO Phong Le stated in May that Strategy could sell Bitcoin when doing so would benefit shareholders, signaling a formal departure from the buy-and-hold doctrine the company had championed.
In late June, the company introduced its Digital Credit Capital Framework, a policy that formalizes the conditions under which Bitcoin can be sold and sets the ceiling for those sales at $1.25 billion.
The framework allows Strategy to sell Bitcoin to replenish its dollar reserve, which stood at $4 billion as of August 2, and to fund dividends, interest payments, and share buybacks.
Separate sales of $653.1 million in common stock have since lifted that dollar reserve to $4.65 billion, giving the company additional financial cushion.
The broader capital management approach was introduced as Strategy faces $1.76 billion in annual dividend obligations, pressuring it to build cash reserves through asset sales and equity issuance.
Strategy’s aggressive Bitcoin accumulation model had become a blueprint for other publicly traded companies seeking to add cryptocurrency to their corporate balance sheets.
The company’s pivot toward selective selling marks a significant turning point for an institution that spent years positioning itself as the definitive long-term corporate holder of Bitcoin.
