Strategy CEO says selling bitcoin at $60,000 before buying at $80,000 was the 'right trade'

Strategy CEO Phong Le brushed aside concerns over the company’s sale of roughly 7,000 bitcoin at $60,000-$65,000 before it resumed buying around $80,000, saying the trades were driven by capital costs rather than bitcoin’s price.

"It was the right trade at the time to sell bitcoin to fund some of our Stretch dividends," Le said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Tuesday. "It’s the right trade at this point in time to sell MSTR at a premium to buy bitcoin."

Strategy paused bitcoin purchases for about 10 weeks while it shored up its balance sheet. Le said the company reduced net debt from roughly $7 billion to zero and built about $7 billion in cash reserves.

The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based company bought 4,603 BTC for approximately $369.7 million at an average price of $80,318 last week. With the purchase, Strategy’s holdings rose to 845,050 BTC, worth roughly $65 billion at current prices.

Strategy bitcoin holdings. Image: The Block.