Strategy Sells Bitcoin After Five Weeks Without Buying

Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy Sells Bitcoin After Five Weeks Without Buying

Bitcoin treasury Strategy on Monday announced that it had again sold a slice of its Bitcoin holdings, offloading 1,638 BTC for roughly $104.7 million.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said the sale took place between July 27 and August 2, at an average price of $63,957 per coin. 

Proceeds were split to cover two obligations: $52.4 million went toward dividend payments on Strategy’s preferred stock, and $52.3 million funded buybacks of its Stretch (STRC) preferred shares.

It marked the latest in a string of weeks where Strategy has chosen to trim Bitcoin rather than add to it, continuing a pattern that began earlier this summer as the company leaned more heavily on stock sales and cash management to fund its obligations.

The same filing disclosed that Strategy sold 3,011,361 shares of its MSTR common stock through its at-the-market program during the period, generating $290.6 million in net proceeds. Of that, $250 million was added to the company’s USD Reserve — a cash cushion set aside to support preferred dividends and debt interest — which now stands at $4 billion.

Strategy also repurchased 912,143 shares of STRC for $81.2 million during the week, continuing a buyback program the company kicked off in late June. No shares of its other preferred products — Strife (STRF), Strike (STRK), or Stride (STRD) — were bought back or sold under the ATM program this period.

The company still holds 842,138 Bitcoin on its balance sheet, worth roughly $54 billion at Monday’s price of around $64,000 per coin, acquired at an aggregate cost of $63.51 billion.

Strategy’s board also kept the dividend rate on STRC steady at 12% annually, declaring $0.50-per-share payments for the periods ending August 31 and September 15. Management has said it does not intend to recommend a lower rate until STRC trades sustainably near its $100 stated value.

Despite the sale, Strategy has maintained that its long-term posture toward Bitcoin hasn’t changed. CEO Phong Le has said the company plans to remain a long-term buyer of Bitcoin despite its recent sales.

Strategy — formerly MicroStrategy — began buying Bitcoin in August 2020 as a treasury strategy to boost shareholder returns during the pandemic. It has since spent more than $63.5 billion accumulating the asset and remains by far the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world. Its approach spawned a wave of copycat companies that have since adopted similar crypto-treasury strategies of their own.

This post Strategy Sells Bitcoin After Five Weeks Without Buying first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.