Strategy Moves 3,568 BTC Across Linked Wallets, Arkham Says No Sale

What happened

Onchain trackers caught Strategy moving 3,568 BTC, worth about $297 million, in nine hours, according to a Lookonchain alert. The alert listed 12 outbound transfers over nine hours, ranging from 137.643 BTC to 452.122 BTC, which added up to about 3,567.5 BTC. Whale Insider and other trackers reposted the $297 million figure. Coinpedia reported the same 3,568 BTC figure and said 11 transfers moved the coins between wallets linked to Strategy.

Arkham analyst Emmett Gallic said the coins were not being sold or moved. He called the transfers normal movements within Fidelity Custody, which treats all customer BTC deposits as fungible and moves funds as needed. He added that the receiving addresses were already labeled as Fidelity on Arkham. The owner of the coins did not change, even though the transfers appeared onchain as coins leaving Strategy wallets.

Why it matters

The nervous reaction has a history. On June 29, Strategy announced a BTC Monetization Program that lets it sell bitcoin from time to time to raise up to $1.25 billion for its USD Reserve. Its July 8-K filing showed it sold 1,363 BTC on June 29-30 at an average $59,256, and another 2,225 BTC between July 1 and July 5 at $60,773. Those sales came from a company whose chairman built his brand on never selling.

Timing did not help. The transfers surfaced just as the bitcoin price slid under $83,000 before recovering, and about $500 million in positions were liquidated across the crypto market. The BTC was not sent to major exchanges such as Binance or Coinbase. Coinpedia said the movements do not confirm a sale, and that further transfers to exchanges or addresses linked to selling activity would provide more evidence of a potential sale.

What the data shows

Strategy's latest filing showed 1,665 BTC acquired between Sept. 21 and Sept. 27 for $142.7 million, an average of $85,681 per coin. That lifted its BTC treasury to 847,666 coins, acquired for about $63.95 billion, or $75,437 per bitcoin. With bitcoin's price hovering near $83,800, the stash is worth roughly $71 billion, a paper gain of about $6.5 billion. Strategy paid for the purchase by selling 1,469,165 shares of MSTR stock and put another $103.5 million from the same raise toward buying back its STRC preferred shares.

It still holds $6.02 billion in U.S. dollar reserves, which gives it room to pay dividends without touching its bitcoin.

Background

The company's chairman has continued to talk up bitcoin and recently proposed rules that would let banks lend against it. He has also teased his latest purchases with Sunday orange charts.

What is still unclear

• Lookonchain counted 12 outbound transfers, while Coinpedia reported 11 transfers between wallets linked to Strategy. The two reports describe the same move with different counts.
• The reports do not show a sale. Coinpedia said the movements do not confirm that Strategy sold Bitcoin, and added that further transfers to exchanges or addresses linked to selling activity would provide more evidence of a potential sale.

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