On Monday afternoon, the price of Bitcoin ($BTC) fell below $64,000, ending a multi-day streak of slight gains after the Bitcoin treasury giant Strategy sold 1,690 bitcoins to finance a preferred stock repurchase. The decline comes amid regulatory and technical headwinds, including debates around the CLARITY Act vote and the BIP-110 chain split.
However, just hours before the drop, Bitcoin appeared to be on track to repeat the price movement that saw it surpass the $65,000 threshold on August 7th. In fact, as the daily chart shows, the cryptocurrency reached an intraday high of $65,416 shortly after 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Sunday. Despite a slight pullback, it maintained the $65,000 level until the early hours of August 10th.
Breaking below the support level shortly after 8:00 AM EST, Bitcoin plunged to just below $63,770, marking an intraday loss of nearly 2%. This decline led to a reduction in market capitalization by over $20 billion—from $1.3 trillion to $1.28 trillion in less than four hours—and resulted in the liquidation of over $47 million in leveraged long positions within 24 hours. For comparison, short position liquidations over the same period exceeded $12 million.
As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, Strategy, which sold 1,690 $BTC between August 3rd and 9th, achieved an average price of $64,262 per coin. After the sale, Strategy's $BTC holdings decreased to 840,447 coins with an average purchase price of $75,385 per coin. Using the $108.6 million proceeds from the sale, Strategy repurchased 1,152,020 STRC shares.
Prior to the recent sale, Strategy also reported selling 1,638 $BTC for approximately $104.7 million between July 27th and August 2nd. Commenting on the latest sale, Strategy CEO Phong Le stated:
"Our USD reserves and duration are now at record highs. Over 2.5 months, we have increased them by nearly $3.8 billion, and both metrics have grown more than 5-fold. This is the 'Digital Credit Capital Framework' in action."
While Le and Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor praised the move, critics and crypto community members remained unconvinced. Peter Schiff, who has repeatedly labeled Strategy a "Ponzi scheme," questioned the logic of buying or holding the company's common stock.
"Since May 25th, you have reduced Bitcoin's year-to-date return by 87% (down 6.4% for the quarter). At this rate, the return will turn negative by next week. How much Bitcoin per share are you willing to destroy to keep your STRC Ponzi scheme going? Why should any Bitcoiner own MSTR common stock?" Schiff asked in an X post, replying to Saylor.
Responding to critics, macro strategist Dan Hilleary posted on X, framing Strategy's move as disciplined balance sheet optimization. Hilleary argued that selling a small portion of bitcoins to repurchase discounted STRC shares or to strengthen reserves for preferred dividend payments is a capital management step that enhances the company's value—a move that lowers the company's long-term cost of capital and strengthens its financial resilience.
In subsequent replies defending his post, Hilleary addressed concerns about the decline in MSTR's "Bitcoin yield," arguing that optimizing capital structure and securing preferred obligations amid market volatility takes precedence over short-term per-share return metrics, ultimately safeguarding shareholder equity value in the long term.
