The world’s foremost Bitcoin hoarder has made its biggest crypto sale yet. Strategy announced on Monday morning that it sold $216 million worth of Bitcoin over the past week. The sale is the company’s largest liquidation of crypto in its six-year history of accumulating Bitcoin on its balance sheet, according to Strategy’s catalog of its crypto transactions. After the announcement, Strategy’s shares fell nearly 5% at market open but rebounded slightly to now $100. Bitcoin fell nearly 1% in the first hour after the announcement, then climbed back to just above $62,000, according to CoinGecko.
Strategy’s latest sell-off comes after the company announced in late June that it may sell up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin to build its cash reserves and avoid issuing more equity. In June, the company also sold 32 Bitcoin, or $2.5 million of its crypto treasury. Strategy has previously stated that selling some of its Bitcoin was a way to shore up cash and calm markets.
The sales are an about-face for a company that has staked its business on accumulating, not dumping, Bitcoin. In 2020, Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy (then called MicroStrategy), started buying Bitcoin for his data software company’s balance sheet. The company’s holdings have since grown to roughly $52 billion, which represents about 4% of the total Bitcoin supply, according to the firm’s own data.
