Strategy sold 6,948 BTC this summer before buying back 4,603 BTC at an average price of $80,318. CEO Phong Le said both moves were "the right trade" when they occurred, and the company now describes itself as a "two-way capital management company," even though it remains a net Bitcoin buyer.

Strategy CEO Phong Le has no regrets about selling Bitcoin near $60,000 only to repurchase it at a higher price weeks later. Speaking with Bloomberg Crypto on Wednesday, Le said the apparent "sell low, buy high" trade reflected changes in the company's balance sheet and financing costs—not a bet on Bitcoin's price.

"It was the right trade at the time to sell Bitcoin to fund our STRC dividends," Le said. "It's the right trade at this point in time to sell MSTR at a premium to buy Bitcoin."

According to the company's Bitcoin ledger, Strategy sold 6,916 BTC in four tranches from late June through mid-August at a weighted-average price of roughly $62,200, then bought 4,603 BTC last week at an average price of $80,318. An Aug. 31 regulatory filing shows the company purchased 4,603 BTC for $369.7 million in the week ending Aug. 30, paying an average of $80,318 per coin. The purchase was financed by selling MSTR shares, bringing holdings to 845,050 BTC—around $65.4 billion.

That stash makes Strategy by far the largest publicly listed corporate holder of Bitcoin, a position the software firm turned Bitcoin treasury company—formerly known as MicroStrategy—has built through years of debt- and equity-funded purchases. The scale of those holdings is why even small changes in the company's buying and selling behavior draw outsized market attention, and why the summer sale became a talking point despite its modest size.

Le emphasized that Strategy's decisions are driven by its balance sheet rather than Bitcoin's market price. "We don't really make decisions on Bitcoin specific to Bitcoin price," he said. "What did we do over the last two months while we were not buying Bitcoin? We shored up our balance sheet."

During the two-month pause in purchases, Strategy increased its assets to $72 billion—$65 billion in Bitcoin and roughly $7 billion in dollar reserves—and cut net debt from about $7 billion to zero, Le said. The stronger balance sheet made it cheaper to issue MSTR shares and use the proceeds to buy Bitcoin, he explained. When Strategy's shares traded at less favorable levels, selling Bitcoin was the better way to meet its obligations.

Strategy accelerated its purchases in February, despite its holdings sitting underwater and mounting questions about its debt and preferred-share financing. In May, the company abandoned its "never sell" position and pledged instead to remain a net Bitcoin buyer. The shift came as STRC—its variable-rate perpetual preferred stock—fell below its $100 stated value in June. Because Strategy adjusts STRC's dividend to keep the shares trading near $100, the decline made issuing more stock less attractive and reduced a key source of funding for Bitcoin purchases. How STRC trades relative to its $100 stated value—and whether MSTR continues to command a premium to the value of its Bitcoin holdings—remains central to how cheaply Strategy can keep financing new purchases.

"It's a two-way strategy. There will be times when it makes sense to sell Bitcoin," Le said. "That 7,000 Bitcoin is less than 1% of the total Bitcoin we have."

Le noted that the sale attracted outsized attention despite representing less than 1% of Strategy's Bitcoin holdings, which have grown by 25% to 30% this year.

"A one-way accumulator isn't really a full operating company," he said. "Somebody who is able to buy and sell Bitcoin, buy and sell equity, buy and sell preferreds—that's really a true operating company and a two-way capital management company. That's what we are."