Key Highlights
- MSTR shares fell about 5% to $156.35 as Bitcoin dropped below $84,000.
- Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings rose to about 848,000 BTC after a new 334 BTC purchase.
- More than $166 million in Bitcoin positions were liquidated as 8,409 traders were affected.
Strategy Inc. (MSTR) shares fell about 5% during early trading on Wednesday, October 7, as Bitcoin also came under heavy selling pressure across the crypto market.
According to data from Yahoo Finance as of 14:53 UTC, MSTR was trading at $156.35 after dropping from an intraday high around $160, bringing the company’s market value down to about $62.5 billion.
The fall came after a strong period for the stock. Data from Yahoo Finance showed that MSTR was still up 8.91% over the past month and 25.92% over the last six months. The stock also had an average trading volume of about 21.5 million shares, showing that it remains actively traded despite Wednesday’s decline.
MSTR falls as Bitcoin also faces selling pressure
The move in MSTR came as Bitcoin also lost ground. The Crypto Times reported that Bitcoin fell below $84,000 early today as selling spread across the crypto market.
At around 13:37 UTC, BTC was trading at $83,280.52, down 3.5% over the previous 24 hours. During that period, Bitcoin traded as high as $86,648.14 before falling to about $83,273.19. The decline followed another rejection near the $86,500 – $87,000 range. After trading above $86,500, Bitcoin slipped toward $85,500 before falling further and briefly moving close to $83,200.
The sell-off also affected traders using leverage. More than $166 million worth of Bitcoin positions were liquidated over 24 hours, according to the report. Long positions made up about $156.69 million of those liquidations, while short positions accounted for about $10.11 million. In total, 8,409 traders were liquidated as Bitcoin’s volatility moved above 4.2%.
Strategy continues to build its Bitcoin holdings
Bitcoin’s price weakness is particularly relevant to Strategy because the company has made Bitcoin a major part of its corporate strategy. The company, formerly known as MicroStrategy, has continued to build one of the largest Bitcoin holdings among publicly traded companies.
On October 5, the company disclosed that it had purchased another 334 BTC between October 1 and October 4. The purchase reportedly cost $28.7 million, including fees and expenses, and pushed Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings to about 848,000 BTC.
The latest purchase brought the company’s total spending on Bitcoin to about $63.97 billion. Its average purchase price stood at roughly $75,436.70 per BTC. Strategy funded $15.7 million of the latest purchase with money raised from selling MSTR shares, while another $13 million came from its U.S. dollar cash holdings.
MSTR sales help fund new Bitcoin purchases
The company had also added 1,665 BTC during the week ended September 27 for about $142.7 million. That purchase had taken its holdings to 847,666 BTC before the recent addition.
Strategy also sold 92,894 MSTR shares between October 1 and October 4, raising $15.7 million in net proceeds. The company had about $18.83 billion of capacity remaining under its MSTR at-the-market stock offering program as of October 4.
Strategy did not repurchase any MSTR shares during that period. It did, however, buy back 740,634 shares of its STRC preferred stock for $73.7 million using U.S. dollar cash.
In short, today’s decline in price therefore comes after Strategy had continued adding Bitcoin to its treasury and after MSTR had recorded gains over the previous weeks and months. As Bitcoin fell sharply on October 7, Strategy shares also moved lower during early trading.
Other crypto stocks are also declining
Meanwhile, Strategy was not the only crypto-related stock falling on Wednesday. According to Yahoo Finance data at 14:53 UTC on October 7, American Bitcoin (ABTC) shares dropped 4.02% to $8.11, while Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) fell 1.78% to $24.42. Bitmine’s market capitalization stood at about $15 billion.
The weakness also spread to other major crypto-linked companies. The Crypto Times reported that Circle (CRCL) fell 4.60% to $80.26, while Coinbase (COIN) declined 4.07% to $178.18. Robinhood (HOOD) also traded lower, falling 3.17% to $108.46.
Also Read: Microsoft Tech-Support Racket Robs US Citizens via Bitcoin ATMs
