- MicroStrategy sold some of its bitcoins for the first time, but remains a net buyer.
- On Wednesday, the company disclosed the sale of 704 bitcoins for about $11.8 million for tax purposes.
- “Never. No. We’re not a vendor,” CEO Michael Saylor said in January. “We only buy and hold bitcoin, right? That’s our strategy.”
MicroStrategy sold bitcoin for the first time after CEO Michael Saylor said earlier this year that such a sale would never happen.
Citing tax reasons, the enterprise software company sold 704 bitcoins on Dec. 22 for roughly $11.8 million, first reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday.
But MicroStrategy remains the largest net buyer of the cryptocurrency by market capitalization, buying 2,395 bitcoin tokens for $42.8 million between Nov. 1 and Dec. 21.
However, the Bitcoin sell-off is happening despite Saylor’s pledge in January. “Never. No. We are not sellers,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We only buy and hold bitcoin, right? That’s our strategy.”
MicroStrategy did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
In late 2020, MicroStrategy became the first publicly traded company in the US to purchase and hold Bitcoin as part of its balance sheet.
Since then, it has continued to increase its holdings, even borrowing billions of dollars to buy more bitcoin. As of Dec. 27, MicroStrategy held about 132,500 bitcoins worth $4 billion and paid an average of $30,397 per token.
MicroStrategy is the biggest corporate buyer of bitcoin, which is down 64% year-to-date and now trades at just over $16,600.
The company denied reports in June that a $205 million bitcoin-backed loan had been issued after the company’s chief investment officer warned of such an occurrence if bitcoin fell below $21,000.
