Strategy moves 3,568 BTC as analyst rules out a sale

What happened

Michael Saylor's Strategy moved 3,568 BTC worth about $297 million over nine hours, according to the on-chain tracker Lookonchain. Lookonchain spotted 12 outbound transfers from Strategy-labeled wallets. The size of the move raised questions about whether the largest corporate bitcoin treasury was selling again or just shuffling coins between wallets.

Arkham analyst Emmett Gallic said the transfers were normal movements within Fidelity Custody and not a sale of Strategy's bitcoin. Fidelity treats customer bitcoin deposits as interchangeable, so when the custodian moves funds between its own addresses, coins can appear to leave a client wallet even though ownership never changes.

Why it matters

Strategy is the largest corporate bitcoin treasury, and it has a standing policy to sell coins. Under its Digital Credit Capital Framework, the company plans to sell bitcoin from time to time to fund STRC preferred stock dividends, MSTR stock buybacks, and rebuild cash reserves.

That policy is not theoretical. On June 29, Strategy launched a BTC Monetization Program to raise up to $1.25 billion for its USD Reserve, and a July filing confirmed it sold 1,363 BTC between June 29 and 30 and another 2,225 BTC in early July.

What the data shows

• Strategy holds 847,666 BTC, acquired for about $63.95 billion, at an average cost of $75,437 per coin.
• With bitcoin near $83,800, that stash was worth roughly $71 billion, a paper gain of about $6.5 billion.
• The latest purchase was 1,665 BTC between September 21 and 27 for $142.7 million, an average of $85,681 per coin.
• Strategy stock traded around $156.51, down roughly 3% over the past week.
• Bitcoin traded above $84,100, up almost 2% from a 24-hour low of $82,581, with volume up 23% over 24 hours.
• Total BTC futures open interest fell more than 2% to $52.73 billion, while the 4-hour CME open interest dropped 14%.

Background

• Strategy paid for the September purchase by selling roughly 1.47 million MSTR stock, and part of the proceeds went to buy back $103.5 million of its STRC preferred stock.
• The June program lets the firm sell bitcoin from time to time to raise up to $1.25 billion for its USD Reserve.

What is still unclear

• The two reports differ on the size of the STRC preferred stock repurchase: CoinGape reported $152 million, while CoinCentral reported $103.5 million.
• The reports describe different intraday bitcoin prices around the transfer: CoinCentral said bitcoin dipped below $83,000 before recovering, while CoinGape said it traded above $84,100.

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