Morning Minute: Saylor’s Strategy Back in Green As BTC Soars to $78k

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors close massive week up 20-30%; BTC at $78.5k
• 10 alts gain 50% or more on the week, spanning memes, Defi and perps
• ETH / BTC prints fresh golden cross
• ZEC jumps 65% on week ahead of Grayscale spot ETF incoming
• Robinhood Chain tokens post major rebound after Vlad Tenev podcast

🏛️ Strategy Is Back in the Green on Bitcoin for the First Time Since July

Strategy holds 840,447 Bitcoin bought at an average price of $75,385, a position that spent most of the summer deep underwater. Bitcoin’s five-day run past $78,000 pushed the company back in the green.

At $78,400, the stack is worth about $65.89 billion against $63.36 billion paid, an unrealized gain near $2.53 billion, or 4.0%. That's a swing of roughly $15.5 billion in six weeks. In July, with Bitcoin near $58,000, the position was about $13B in the red. MSTR closed Friday at $119.25, up 27.4% on the month and its highest level in two months, though still 67% below its 52-week high of $365.21.

Of course, this reversal comes after Saylor did what he said he wouldn’t. Michael Saylor spent years telling anyone who would listen that Strategy would never sell Bitcoin. Since May the company has sold 6,948 BTC for about $432.5 million, including 1,690 BTC for $109 million during the week ending August 9, with proceeds going to buy back STRC, its variable-rate preferred stock. The week after that, Strategy left Bitcoin alone and raised $334 million selling MSTR shares instead, using the money for preferred dividends, more STRC buybacks, and a dollar reserve that now sits at $6.7 billion after another week of major fundraising. Through the entire stretch when Bitcoin traded in the low-to-mid $60,000s, well below the company’s own cost basis, Strategy was a net seller of Bitcoin and a net seller of its own stock. It did not buy the dip.