Strategy CEO Defends Selling Bitcoin as the 'Right Trade'
Strategy's CEO says selling a tiny bit of its huge Bitcoin pile was smart, and the company is now buying again.
The head of Strategy — the world's biggest corporate owner of Bitcoin — is telling worried investors not to panic about the company selling off a small piece of its cryptocurrency.
CEO Phong Le told Bloomberg that selling some Bitcoin was simply the "right trade at the time" and helped give the company a "bullet-proof balance sheet" (a balance sheet is a summary of what a company owns versus what it owes — a strong one means the company is financially healthy).
What is Strategy? Formerly called MicroStrategy, it began as a software company but pivoted in 2020 to buying and holding Bitcoin. Its original goal was to protect shareholders from inflation (when money loses value over time and prices rise). Today it holds a massive stockpile of the cryptocurrency.
Key facts:
- Strategy owns 845,050 Bitcoins, worth about $65.1 billion today.
- It paused buying for 10 weeks starting in June, then restarted buying on Monday.
- During the pause, it sold small amounts of Bitcoin and built up two cash reserves.
- In July, it reported an $8.22 billion loss (mostly a "paper loss" — meaning the value dropped on paper but wasn't a real cash loss from selling).
- Its stock (MSTR on the Nasdaq) is down 22% this year and fell 2% on Wednesday.
He also said he doesn't expect to sell more, since he believes a strong bull market (a period when prices are rising) is coming, and predicted the stock would "soar again" next year.
Why does this matter to everyday people? Many investors buy Strategy's stock (MSTR) as an easy way to bet on Bitcoin's price without owning Bitcoin directly. So the company's decisions affect a lot of people's money.
This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/strategy-ceo-phong-le-defends-bitcoin-sale