Bitcoin treasury company Strategy on Monday announced that it again sold Bitcoin last week, and used the cash to buy back its preferred stock.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Nasdaq-listed company said it sold 1,690 coins for $108.6 million, bringing its holdings to 840,447 coins, down from 842,138 it had the week before.
The cash, Strategy said, went to buying 1,152,020 STRC shares worth $109 million as part of a buyback program. STRC in June fell far below the $100 stated amount.
Strategy, which went from being an enterprise software company to buying Bitcoin in 2020, hasn’t bought any Bitcoin since June.
The company has reassured investors that selling Bitcoin is just part of its plan to grow its cash buffer. Strategy said Monday that it now holds $4.65 billion in cash.
Strategy’s stock (Nasdaq: MSTR) was trading nearly 3% lower on Monday. The stock has taken a hit since the price of Bitcoin nosedived last year. Investors buy MSTR to get amplified exposure to the biggest digital asset.
But now, as Bitcoin is nearly 50% below its October record, MSTR is down nearly 80% from the all-time high it notched last year.
Despite the sale, Strategy has maintained that its long-term posture toward Bitcoin hasn’t changed.
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 buying Bitcoin and remains by far the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world.
Strategy’s approach spawned a wave of copycat companies that have since adopted similar crypto-treasury strategies of their own.
The company maintains that its long-term posture toward Bitcoin is still the same. CEO Phong Le he isn’t worried about the current bear market, and that the company plans to remain a long-term buyer of Bitcoin despite its recent sales.
