Strategy's $105M Bitcoin Sale Weighs on Markets Amid Coldcard Hack Fears

Michael Saylor's company Strategy has come under fire for selling nearly $105 million worth of Bitcoin in two transactions. The sales, which took place between July 27th and August 2nd, were at an average price of $63,957 per token. Over $52.4 million of the proceeds went towards covering dividend payments on preferred stock, while another $52.3 million was used to repurchase variable-rate preferred shares.

Strategy also raised over $290 million through the sale of 3.01 million of its own shares, with $250 million dedicated to a dollar reserve that now totals $4 billion. The news has weighed on Bitcoin prices, which have been struggling to recover from a historic decline in recent months.

Saylor defended the decision to sell Bitcoin, stating that when he says 'never sell your bitcoin,' he speaks as one saver to another and not about his company Strategy, which is a public entity with its own capital management strategies. He noted that Strategy has disclosed it may buy or sell BTC since 2020 to manage its capital.

The sale comes amidst reports of a hack on Coldcard wallets, which have been deemed the most secure way to store cryptocurrency private keys offline. Security experts mapped the attack and linked it to a firmware flaw in Coldcard, which was exploited to drain over $70 million worth of Bitcoin from 1,196 addresses within an hour.