Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), the worlds largest institutional Bitcoin holder, caused a major stir in the cryptocurrency markets with its recent Bitcoin sale.
The company‘s decision to sell only 32 Bitcoin (worth approximately $2.5 million) has raised questions among investors about whether the company’s strategy is faltering. Speaking on the matter, Strategy CEO Phong Le shared the background to the decision and the companys long-term plans.
Phong Le argued that, contrary to market speculation, there was no financial necessity or panic behind this sale. Describing the move as “injecting the market,” Le stated:
“Our debtors and bondholders, as well as credit rating agencies, wanted to see if we could convert our largest corporate asset, Bitcoin, into cash if needed. We conducted this sale to show people that we can sell Bitcoin when necessary. We also wanted to test the processes of moving and selling our assets from cold wallets to hot wallets and gauge how the market would react.”
Le reminded that the company publishes its weekly activity report (8-K) in accordance with its principle of transparency, and stated that in the week following this small sale of $2.5 million, they purchased $100 million worth of Bitcoin, and in the previous week, they purchased $1.5 billion worth, emphasizing that there has been no change in the companys long-term accumulation strategy.
Responding to questions within the crypto community about whether decisions are made by a single leader, Le stated that as a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ, they have a very strict corporate governance scheme. He explained that decisions are filtered through a joint decision-making process involving Michael Saylor, himself, eight board members, and shareholders, and that they utilize daily simulations and advanced data analytics models. Le said, “We don‘t sit down with the board and say, ’Let‘s sell 32 Bitcoin,’ but we get the strategy of selling Bitcoin approved by the board, and then we execute it daily with our treasury and trading teams.”
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Addressing the balance between “crypto smoothness” (radical stances favoring simply holding Bitcoin in wallets) within the crypto community and the use of traditional capital markets, the CEO argued that financial products are needed for Bitcoins global growth.
“When I explain Bitcoin to someone, I don‘t give them an IQ test or a loyalty test. Our philosophy is ’to spread Bitcoin with love‘. For Bitcoin to succeed in the world, more people need to have access to it; whether through personal wallets, exchanges like Coinbase, ETFs like IBIT, or financial instruments like ’Stretch that we offer.”
Phong Le explained that they heavily utilized Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) in the development of their financial product, Stretch, and that they reduced legal and financial modeling processes, which could normally take 3 years due to accountants and lawyers, to just 8 months thanks to artificial intelligence.
Le, who predicts that traditional banking networks (Visa, Mastercard, Swift, etc.) will not work in a future world of “Agent-based Artificial Intelligence” (Agentic AI) and humanoid robots, said, “Millions of robots that will be transacting on Mars or the Moon will use decentralized finance (DeFi) networks and Bitcoin as a store of value, not traditional finance. Thats why we are very bullish on the future.”