Michael Saylor's Strategy Sells More Bitcoin, Increasing Its Cash Stockpile To $4.6 Billion. Its Stock Is Dropping.

Strategy, the world's largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, has sold another chunk of its cryptocurrency holdings while issuing millions of new shares, building up a multibillion-dollar cash reserve as it tries to strengthen its balance sheet. Its stock is falling.

The company sold 1,690 Bitcoin for about $108.6 million during the seven days ended Aug. 9, marking its second consecutive week of Bitcoin sales after years in which accumulating the cryptocurrency was at the heart of its strategy.

At the same time, Strategy sold approximately 6.6 million shares of its Class A common stock, raising about $653.1 million.

The transactions helped push the company's U.S. dollar reserve to approximately $4.65 billion, according to Strategy's latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The latest moves represent a striking change for a company whose executive chairman and co-founder, Michael Saylor, has spent years promoting an aggressive Bitcoin accumulation strategy.

Strategy used part of the money generated from its Bitcoin sales to repurchase shares of its variable-rate Series A perpetual preferred stock, known as Stretch or STRC.

The company repurchased approximately 1.15 million STRC shares for $108.6 million during the latest reporting period.