Michael Saylor is reversing his bitcoin accumulation flywheel model. Strategy disclosed it sold $333.7 million worth of common stock over the past week, using the proceeds to repurchase preferred shares and bolster its cash reserves, without making any new bitcoin purchases.
The company's Monday filing shows no bitcoin buying or selling activity occurred during the seven-day period ending August 16. Strategy has not purchased any bitcoin since mid-June. At the end of June, Saylor, who serves as executive chairman of Strategy, announced the company would abandon the continuous bitcoin accumulation strategy he pioneered, shifting instead to a capital management model.
Over the past five weeks, the company has sold approximately $2.1 billion in common stock while repurchasing roughly $347 million of its STRC series preferred shares. During the same period, it also sold $213.3 million worth of bitcoin. Last week, after using a portion of its share-sale proceeds to cover preferred stock interest payments, Strategy's cash reserves rose to $4.8 billion. The company currently holds bitcoin with a total value of approximately $58 billion.
Back in May, when a sharp drop in bitcoin prices created significant pressure and Saylor's model of funding bitcoin purchases through premium-priced common and preferred stock issuance nearly ground to a halt, he signaled for the first time that he would break his own "never sell" doctrine. Strategy shares rose approximately 3% in early trading to $95.78; the stock has fallen about 73% over the past year.