Bitcoin juggernaut Strategy stock drops as it sells coins for the first time since 2022

What happened: Strategy ( MSTR ) stock fell more than 6% on Monday morning after the largest public holder of bitcoin disclosed the sale of 32 bitcoin at a price of $2.5 million. It was the company’s first bitcoin sale since late 2022.

The move brings Strategy’s stock price to $151 per share, or roughly flat year to date. Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ), meanwhile, is down more than 2% over the past 24 hours.

What’s behind the move: The bitcoin investor and business software firm recently signaled plans to shift from longtime bitcoin stockpiling to more active balance sheet management. Strategy owns more bitcoin than any other publicly traded entity.

The aim is for the company to juice its “bitcoin per share” performance metric, which measures how much bitcoin backs its stock. The new focus is a 180-degree turn from Strategy’s relentless use of creative financing from the capital markets to buy as many coins as possible.

In short, “It’s not unlikely that we’ll sell some Bitcoin between now and the end of the year,” Michael Saylor, Strategy’s executive chair and founder, said during a May 20 podcast interview.

What else you need to know: This time last year, Strategy’s outrageous stock gains made it a highflier on Wall Street. Saylor’s unflappable “never sell” promotion of bitcoin garnered a cultlike following among believers.

Core for how it got there was Saylor and Strategy’s years of undaunted pursuit of accumulating bitcoin at any cost. The once lesser-known firm refused to sell holdings amid numerous downturns since it bought its first bitcoin at $11,000 per unit in August 2020.

Critics have long argued against the sustainability of the company’s accumulation method, which increasingly relies on equity dilution and mounting debt obligations.