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According to a regulatory filing, 32 bitcoin changed hands between May 26 and May 31 for roughly $2.5 million — a transaction that marked the first time Strategy had offloaded any of its holdings since late 2022. The company said it expected to use the proceeds to fund distributions on its preferred stock.
Coins were offloaded at an average price of $77,135 apiece. News of the sale sent Strategy shares down more than 6% in premarket trading, and bitcoin slid 2%, touching its weakest price since April 13.
December 2022 — a turbulent stretch defined by aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes, the implosion of the FTX exchange, and a wave of failures cascading through leveraged crypto lenders and hedge funds — was the previous occasion on which Strategy parted with any bitcoin, according to CNBC.
The transaction is a signal of how much Strategy's operating philosophy has evolved, according to CNBC. Founder Michael Saylor long championed a doctrine of never parting with the company's coins, but that stance has given way to a more dynamic approach under which bitcoin may be sold when doing so boosts per-share holdings, supports dividend payments, or otherwise bolsters the balance sheet.
